Just received the CCHQ's report compiling all the data from their Parliamentary Questions into how much public sector bodies spend on lobbying.
Thought I'd give you some highlights:
National Lottery Commission: £512,490 to Hill and Knowlton. In one month they actually charge them £64,000, which is unbelievable!)
MET Office: £161,505 to Politics International (The MET Office are probably going to cut lots of jobs now)
Crown Estate: £858,000 to Weber Shandwick Public Affairs
But this has to be the biggest shocker:
£990,710 paid to Fishburn Hedges by... Jobcentre Plus! The same Jobcentre Plus that until the unemployment spiked was going to be cut back significantly, spent almost a million pounds recently. That's around a 10th of all the public money identified in the research, all spent on persuading central Government to give them more money.
The Tories have come up with the warning signal but I doubt they will put their finger on the nub of this, the deep malaise in UK Government today whereby Government needs to hire private communicators because it can't talk to itself. It won't just be a case of firing the consultants. Real, painful reform is required.
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