CIPR MANIFESTO ADDRESSES FUTURE UK GOVERNMENT
Last night (10 February) the Chartered Institute of Public Relations revealed its manifesto for the upcoming year. The manifesto is targeted towards the next UK government and addresses some of the key issues that the public relations profession wants to see addressed both within their industry and on a wider scale.
The CIPR Manifesto, revealed at the President’s Reception, outlined seven key areas that are most in need of debate and discussion, they are: lobbying, the future of corporate governance, independent practitioners and future skills needs, the gender pay gap, data protection and internet governance and broadband.
The CIPR is calling on the next government to actively support higher professional standards and accountability in lobbying. This has been an ongoing battle with the current government and one that finally paid off in 2014 when the Lobbying Bill was passed, however, there’s still a long way to go.
CIPR president, Sarah Pinch, says, “The next UK Government should seek to restart the dialogue with stakeholders on the role of lobbying in our democracy, and actively support the development of a highly skilled, qualified and ethically competent group of public affairs professionals that serve the needs of a modern complex democracy. Ensuring that the law that introduced a statutory register of consultant lobbyists genuinely provides the public with more information about how policies and laws are shaped should be considered a priority. Failure to do so will result in lobbying genuinely being the next big scandal waiting to happen.”
The gender pay gap is another prominent issue in the public relations industry. The CIPR suggests that the future government strengthen the Equal Pay act, ensuring it is applied universally. The CIPR’s State of the Profession report, due to be revealed next week, will contain up-to-date information on the size of the current pay gap, last year's study showed that it was as large as £12,390 in senior roles.
Pinch adds, “Looking outside of our traditional areas of influence, some of the really big questions facing our society – internet governance, data protection, the gender pay gap – have not so far figured large in political debate, but our future government will need to take a lead on finding answers to them. Most of these issues are not ones for which a government can simply legislate, and most of them do not have a simple, straightforward solution. Rather, they require an open and informed public conversation which will allow us to arrive at a sustainable set of policies and maintain the UK’s world lead in what are critically important areas.”
