Appendix 3: Registers of interests for
Members' Secretaries and Research Assistants, Journalists, and
All-Party Groups
Origin and purpose of the three Registers
1. The origin of the keeping of these Registers
lies in the mid-1980s. Ten years after the introduction of the
Register of Members' Interests in 1974, the Select Committee on
Members' Interests (a predecessor of the Committee on Standards
and Privileges) conducted an inquiry into concerns about parliamentary
lobbying and recommended that:
"When they are approached, Members of the
House must be able readily to identify the source and true nature
of the approach. Equally the full purposes of those with access
to Parliament should be known. We are convinced that greater openness
would now be beneficial in certain areas."[50]
2. To meet those concerns the Committee concluded
that registers should be set up for Members' staff, journalists
and All-Party Groups. The Committee's recommendations were subsequently
agreed by the House on 17 December 1985 and the first registers
were published in 1986. The form and substance of each register
are detailed in the sections below.
Members' Secretaries and Research Assistants
3. Those holding a parliamentary pass as a Member's
secretary or research assistant are required to record on this
Register, commonly called the Members' Staff Register, any other
occupation or employment from which they receive income exceeding
half of one per cent of a Member's salary from the same source
in the course of a calendar year, if that occupation or employment
is in any way advantaged by the privileged access to Parliament
afforded by their pass.[51]
They also have to register any tangible gift (eg silverware) and
any other benefit (eg hospitality, service or facilities provided)
which they receive, if the value of the gift or benefit exceeds
that sum and the gift arises from or relates to their work in
Parliament.
Journalists' Register
4. Those holding a pass as a Lobby journalist
accredited to the parliamentary Press Gallery or for parliamentary
broadcasting are required to register any occupation or employment
from which they receive income exceeding one per cent of a Member's
salary from the same source in the course of a calendar year,
if that occupation or employment is in any way advantaged by the
privileged access to Parliament afforded by their pass.[52]
All-Party Groups' Register
5. The membership of All-Party Groups consists
mainly of backbench Members of the House of Commons and Lords
but may also include ministers and non-parliamentarians. There
are two types of group: subject groups (relating to a particular
topic, e.g. forestry) and country groups (relating to a particular
country or region).
6. Inclusion on the Register of All-Party Groups
is compulsory for any group which includes Members of the Commons
from more than one party and has at least one officer who is from
the Commons. Such groups are required to register the group's
title and the names of its officers. Financial and material benefits
received by the group as a whole must also be registered, where
the group receives during a calendar year one or more benefits
from the same source whose total value is £1000 or more.
Lastly, the group must register details of any staff servicing
the group who receive payment from sources outside Parliament
for any occupation or employment that is advantaged by the privileged
access to Parliament they have by virtue of holding a parliamentary
pass.
7. Groups that qualify for inclusion on the Register
of All-Party Groups may also apply for inclusion on the Approved
List. Both are compiled by my office and with very few exceptions
most groups are on both. By being on the Approved List, a group
qualifies for certain entitlements, largely to do with use of
the House's facilities. Additional rules apply to groups on the
List. For example, they must hold an annual election of officers
and must also register the names of a minimum of ten Members from
the Government party and ten from the Opposition parties.
8. To distinguish them from other formal and
informal groups of MPs within Parliament (eg select committees)
approved groups must include the term All-Party Parliamentary
Group in their title or else Associate Parliamentary Group. The
distinction here is that both types of group may have non-parliamentarians
as members but whereas the latter allows voting rights to such
members the former does not.
9. The usual pattern is for the number of groups
to be at its highest towards the end of a parliament, then to
drop after a general election (when all groups have to re-register),
before rising again to equal or exceed the previous parliament's
total.
Overlap between the Registers
10. Overlap between the various Registers kept
by my office is an increasingly common occurrence. Subject to
the different financial thresholds that apply to each of the registers,
examples arise when:
a) Hospitality (eg relating to overseas visits)
is received by an All-Party Group. This may need to be registered
on both the Register of All-Party Groups and the Register of Members'
Interests (and may also need to be registered with the Electoral
Commission, depending on its value to each individual Member).
b) An external organisation or individual subsidises
a staff member's salary. This may need to be registered on both
the both the Register of Members' Interests and the Register of
Interests of Members' Secretaries and Research Assistants, and
if the staff member acts as part of the staff to an All-Party
Group, on the Register of All-Party Groups as well.
c) An external organisation or individual subsidises
the attendance of a Member and of their staff at a particular
event. This may need to be registered on both the Register of
Members' Interests and the Register of Interests of Members' Secretaries
and Research Assistants.
Access to the three Registers
11. The three registers are not published in
printed form but are published on the Commissioner's webpage,
which is part of Parliament's website.[53]A
paper copy of each register is also held at the House of Commons
where anyone may inspect it by arrangement. An updated edition
of each register is usually issued every 4-6 weeks when the House
is sitting.
Complaints relating to the three Registers
12. Complaints relating to the three Registers
have in past years been rare in comparison with complaints relating
to the Register of Members' Interests. The Committee on Standards
and Privileges' Ninth Report of Session 2005-06 (about All-Party
Groups) represented the first case of a formal report to the House
exclusively relating to a complaint concerning a Register other
than the Register of Members' Interests.
50 See Select Committee on Members' Interests, First
Report of Session 1984-85, HC 261 Back
51
Over £300 during the period of this report. Back
52
Over £600 during the period of this report. Back
53
See the Publications section of our website at www.parliament.uk/pcs.
Requests to consult a hard copy of the Registers should be made
to the main Committee Office at the House of Commons by calling
020 7219 4300. Back
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