The Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016 will come into effect in early 2018 and the Scottish Parliament has now published it’s Draft Parliamentary Guidancewhich outlines what ASPA members will need to do in order to comply with the law.

​Following this publication ASPA will be raising a number of issues directly with the Lobbying Register team so if any member has views or feedback that they would like to contribute to our response then please get in touch with secretary@scottishpublicaffairs.org.uk

The Lobbying Registrar Billy McLaren has agreed to come and present the guidance to ASPA members along with a demonstration of how the online lobbying register will work. We’ll confirm details of this event in due course but would recommend all ASPA members try to attend as it’s essential to understand these new rules and how they will operate.

ASPA is represented on the Lobbying Register Working Group by a number of our members and Margaret Smith, Director of Caledonia Public Affairs, speaks for small PA consultancies on this group. Margaret is keen to hear from ASPA members in this category so if you have issues you want to discuss with her then please contact her on margaret.smith@caledoniapublicaffairs.com or you can view a list of the full membership of the Working Group here. These are your voices on the Lobbying Register so if you want your concerns to be heard then get in touch with them.