Our response to the proposed new lobbying rules

“At Action for Children we speak out on behalf of vulnerable children, young people and families across the UK to ensure their voices are heard, especially at election time. The new guidelines set out in this Bill could seriously affect our ability to do this.

“For instance, ahead of the Scottish Independence referendum we will run a series of training events to engage young people including those in care, young offenders, disabled young people and young carers to introduce them to politics and empower and encourage them to vote for the first time. This work would be limited by the proposed changes to the Lobbying Bill as it is deemed 'for election purposes' and therefore the amount of money and staff time we can dedicate to it capped.

“The Bill would also mean that we may not be able to participate in coalition working across the charity sector on issues like child poverty, and disability. This is because the spending of the whole coalition is applied to each member of it, and would likely take us over the allowed spending for an election year.

“We don't understand why the Government would want to stop these important activities. We are proud to represent marginalised and vulnerable people at election time, and hope that the Government fundamentally reconsider these proposals.”