- Minutes home
- Members Minutes 5 December 2011
- Members Minutes 18 July 2011
- AGM Meeting 9 May 2011
- Members Minutes 9 May 2011
- Members Minutes 14 March 2011
- Members Minutes 6 December 2010
- Members Minutes 13 September 2010
- AGM Meeting 10 May 2010
- Members Minutes 15 March 2010
- Members minutes 16 September 2009
- Members Minutes 27 July 2009
- Members Minutes 11 May 2009
- AGM meeting 11 May 2009
- Members Meeting 26 January 2009
- Members Minutes 8 December 2008
- AGM meeting 12 May 2008
- Members meeting 12 May 2008
- Members meeting 17 March 2008
- Members Meeting: 3 Dec 2007
- Members Meeting: 10 Sept 2007
- AGM: 14 May 2007
- Members Meeting: 5 Mar 2007
- Members Meeting: 14 May 2007
- Members Meeting: 4 Dec 2006
You are here:
Members Minutes 18 July 2011
MINUTES of a MEMBERS’ MEETING
held on 18 July 2011 at
at 5.30pm at APCO , 90 Long Acre, London WC2E 9RA
Present:
APCO Martin Sawer
Cicero Iain Anderson
Cogitamus Paul Beckford (Chair YCC)
College Public Policy Robbie MacDuff
College Public Policy Warwick Smith
Connect Gill Morris
Fishburn Hedges Rory Scanlan
Green Issues Communiqué Gabriel Abulafia
Helen Johnson Consulting Helen Johnson (Chair)
Lexington Alex Mawer
MHP Communications Gavin Devine (Deputy Chair)
Political Intelligence Philip Reid
Politics Direct David Beamer
PPS Julian Seymour
APPC Michael Burrell (Past Chair)
APPC Mary Shearer (Secretary)
Apologies:
Grayling
Hanover
Tetra Strategy
Whitehouse Consultancy
Opening Remarks
The Chair thanked APCO for hosting this meeting.
1. Minutes of the Previous Meeting
Members approved the minutes of the meeting held on 9 May 2011. There were no matters arising and not elsewhere on the agenda.
The Chair reported that the Management Committee had held its annual strategy meeting on 29 June. The meeting had focused on two major issues, namely UKPAC and the proposed statutory register, and the proposed APPC response to current developments. The Chair reported on these discussions (see item 2 below).
2. UK Public Affairs Council and Proposed Statutory Register
The updated UKPAC register (as at 31 May) was still not in a position to go live but was due to do so before the summer recess; unfortunately, the time taken by UKPAC meant that APPC members would not have the opportunity to check their own entries, but it had been checked by a number of people. Work was still continuing to ensure that previous registers were correct before being archived.
UKPAC was beginning to think about the principle of universality and had held meetings with other organisations; however, this was difficult to prioritise in the absence of a fully functioning and accurate UKPAC register. There seemed to be some difficulties emerging between the priorities of the three founding member organisations, and there were also issues to resolve relating to the ongoing funding of UKPAC and lack of communications.
The Management Committee had concluded that APPC should continue to support UKPAC, including progressing ways in which data might be uploaded by members directly online. The Chair commended the efforts of Gill Morris and Robbie MacDuff on the UKPAC board, and also of Nick Lansman in helping to resolve IT issues.
Whilst there remained concerns and the Management Committee would be watching how the UKPAC situation developed very carefully, APPC needed to continue to work with UKPAC to develop the register to provide a model for a statutory register, whether run by UKPAC or otherwise. If this did not succeed, not only would it damage APPC’s reputation, and fail to meet the PASC recommendation, but could also lead the way to a statutory register for multi-client agencies alone.
Robbie MacDuff reported that the UKPAC chair was arranging one-to-one meetings with all board members, when he would raise the need for UKPAC meetings to be arranged in such a way that the members had time to consulting with their own organisations. The three member organisations would also be having a meeting without UKPAC independent members to establish common concerns.
As regards a statutory register, the Government’s consultation was unlikely to be published until after the summer recess. The main point APPC would pursue would be the need for a level playing field. Given the delay in the consultation and the problems with the UKPAC register, the strategy meeting had agreed that APPC should make representations on its own behalf, based on the 15-year track record with its own register. As a first step, the Chair would be writing to the Cabinet Office Minister, and a draft would be circulated shortly to the Management Committee.
APPC(S) was keeping a watching brief on developments in Scotland, but there seemed to be no plans for a statutory register there.
3. APPC Register
3.1
Michael Burrell introduced his paper on guidance for members as to which clients should be declared on the APPC Register. This was the outcome of discussion at the strategy meeting of the need for clearer guidance for members, given changes in the external environment and looking ahead to APPC’s response to the consultation on a statutory register.
The Management Committee had decided to recommend to members that the trigger for registration should be contact with the institutions of government.
The advantages of this approach would include consistency, simplicity, and making universality more easily obtained; it also had the merit of following those jurisdictions that already had statutory registration. As it had done for many years, APPC should take the lead in clarifying its requirements, so that it would then be in a strong position to argue for this approach in a statutory register.
Members agreed in principle to clarify in this way the guidance to members on which clients to register. However, a number of questions were raised about the potential for registering different scenarios.:
Warwick Smith undertook to draft guidance and/or FAQs on registrable activities for further discussion by the members and also to consider amendments required to the Code of Conduct. Members with specific issues were asked to inform the secretary.
Action: Warwick Smith
It was noted that, to implement the guidance, APPC would need clear communication and advice to members and would also need to consider how to deal with UKPAC and the media.
3.2
The Chair acknowledged that many of UKPAC’s data conversion issues had arisen because of incompatibility with APPC’s and PRCA’s registration processes. It was therefore proposed to introduce a new process to allow members to update their own APPC Register entries on line through the APPC website with effect from the next Register, due 31 August 2011. The advantages would be to remove transmission errors, to improve consistency and timeliness, to allow members to review both the APPC and UKPAC register entries, and to reinforce that individual members are responsible for their own Code compliance. The system would allow a window of approximately two weeks to complete entries, after which the database would be frozen (maybe until the next quarter) for transmission to UKPAC.
Members agreed that the new process should be introduced.
The secretary said that the company (Pixl8) that ran APPC’s website had been commissioned to create the online form at a cost of £2,400 plus VAT, which would be recovered by cost savings on the current system. There had been a meeting the previous week to brief Pixl8, who were confident that the system could be in place for use for the next Register. Pixl8 had been provided with a revised form, allowing data only as required by the Code and the Articles, eg one name per member, and in line with UKPAC’s format. It was agreed that, for the time being, APPC should retain its three categories of clients.
Action: Nick Lansman
4. Membership
The Chair reported that two membership applications had been approved in principle, subject to interview. Another application had been received, but not yet considered by the Management Committee.
The question of membership engagement had been considered at the strategy meeting, when it had been agreed to carry out a short survey to canvass members’ opinions. Members discussed various ways in which attendance at meetings might be improved. All agreed that the essential point was to ensure a culture of Code compliance in member firms and that attendance at meetings was not necessarily indicative of engagement, although it could reinforce peer pressure to comply. The Chair commented that the role of the YCC was proving crucial in engaging younger members and disseminating information.
5. Any Other Business
5.1 APPC Code Training
Paul Beckford reported that there had been positive feedback from the training session on 29 June and that the YCC would continue to develop the sessions.
The Chair emphasised that APPC Code training was not just for young consultants, but for all consultants who were new to working within the APPC Code, particularly former MPs, SPADs, etc. Members suggested that separate sessions might be more appropriate, given a title other than “training”.
Action: Management Committee to consider
5.2 APPC in Scotland
The Chair reported that, together with Paul Beckford, she had attended the APPC(S) AGM on 1 July, which had been followed by a Code training session, and then a presentation on the work of the YCC. APPC(S) was now considering setting up its own YCC.
5.3 Date of Next Meeting
It was agreed to change the date of the next members’ meeting to avoid a clash with Party conferences.
Date of Next Meeting
12 September 2011 venue tbc