Lobbying bill must remove gag on children's charities

Belatedly, the government has brought its Transparency of Lobbying Bill before Parliament, pledging to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists, and rightly so. But in seeking to tackle one scandal, the bill threatens to create another (see p14). Published the day before MPs broke up for their summer recess, the bill threatens to muzzle children's charities and campaign groups in the 12 months before a general election.

How? It proposes to slash the amount charities in general are permitted to spend on campaign activity during this period by around 60 per cent. And although such groups are already bound by charity law and therefore cannot be party political, the bill radically widens the definition of activity that can be deemed as being for "electoral purposes" and outlawed. Even the Electoral Commission has said the restrictions are unclear and that the bill in its current state would be unenforceable.