Meeting for Sufferings: Lobbying Act
Jennifer Barraclough spoke to Meeting for Sufferings about the Lobbying Act
As part of the BYM trustees’ report, Jennifer Barraclough spoke to Friends about the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014, known as the Lobbying Act.
While the ultimate decision over whether to register rests with trustees, she wanted to put it to Meeting for Sufferings for joint consideration, and to share the implications.
She explained that the Act is about transparency. It compels organisations engaged in activities that could be construed as lobbying to register once their expenditure exceeds a certain amount.
The trustees ‘have given very careful thought to the implications of this Act’, Friends were told. She added that there were reasons to register, and reasons not to. On the one hand, the Act could be seen as a ‘low level piece of bureaucracy that tells people what we do and what we spend on it’.
On the other hand, she said, registering ‘runs the risk of offering ourselves up for possible censorship, supporting the view that certain types of work should not take place’.
Paul Parker, recording clerk for Britain Yearly Meeting, explained that Britain Yearly Meeting is not expected to cross the Act’s spending threshold until the end of the year.
