Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016

The register

3 Lobbying register

(1) The Clerk must establish and maintain a lobbying register (the “register”), containing information about active registrants, inactive registrants and voluntary registrants.

(2) The Clerk must publish, by such means as the Clerk considers appropriate, the information about active registrants which is contained in the register.

(3) But the Clerk may withhold from publication information relating to an individual if the Clerk considers that it would be inappropriate to make that information publicly available.

(4) The Clerk may publish, by such means as the Clerk considers appropriate, such information as the Clerk considers appropriate about—

(a) inactive registrants, and

(b) voluntary registrants.

(5) In exercising functions under this Part, the Clerk must have regard to the parliamentary guidance (see section 43).

(6) In this Part—

• “active registrant” means a person entered in the register under section 10,

• “inactive registrant” means a person entered in the register as an inactive registrant under section 12 or 13,

• “voluntary registrant” means a person entered in the register as a voluntary registrant under section 14.

4 Content of register

(1) The register must contain an entry for each registrant setting out the information about the registrant’s identity mentioned in section 5.

(2) In relation to an active or inactive registrant, the register must also contain—

(a) the information about the registrant’s regulated lobbying activity mentioned in section 6, and

(b) additional information provided by the registrant mentioned in section 7.

5 Information about identity

The information about the registrant’s identity is—

(a) in the case of an individual—

(i) the individual’s name, and

(ii) the address of the individual’s main place of business (or, if there is no such place, the individual’s residence),

(b) in the case of a company (within the meaning of the Companies Act 2006)—

(i) the name of the company,

(ii) its registered number,

(iii) the address of its registered office,

(iv) the names of its directors and of any secretary, and

(v) the names of any shadow directors,

(each of those expressions having the same meaning as in that Act),

(c) in the case of a partnership (including a limited liability partnership)—

(i) the name of the partnership,

(ii) the names of the partners, and

(iii) the address of its main office or place of business, and

(d) in the case of any other person—

(i) the name of the person, and

(ii) the address of the person’s main office or place of business.

6 Information about regulated lobbying activity

(1) The information about the registrant’s regulated lobbying activity is information submitted by the registrant about instances of the registrant engaging in regulated lobbying.

(2) That is, in relation to each instance of regulated lobbying—

(a) the name of the person lobbied,

(b) the date on which the person was lobbied,

(c) the location at which the person was lobbied,

(d) a description of the meeting, event or other circumstances in which the lobbying occurred,

(e) the name of the individual who made the communication falling within section 1(1),

(f) either—

(i) a statement that the lobbying was undertaken on the registrant’s own behalf, or

(ii) the name of the person on whose behalf the lobbying was undertaken, and

(g) the purpose of the lobbying.

7 Additional information

The additional information provided by the registrant is—

(a) any information submitted by the registrant about—

(i) whether there is an undertaking by the registrant to comply with a code of conduct which governs regulated lobbying (whether or not it also governs other activities) and is available for public inspection,

(ii) where a copy of the code may be inspected, and

(iii) any individual given responsibility by the registrant for monitoring the registrant’s compliance with the code, and

(b) such other information provided by the registrant which the Clerk considers appropriate to include in the register.