Disclosing lobbying consultancy activities

Long-term and systematic lobbying and lobbying consultancy targeting Parliament and ministries must be reported to the Transparency Register. The disclosure of activities must be submitted twice a year. The lobbying carried out between January and June must be reported in July–August, and the lobbying carried out between July and December must be reported in January–February.

The organisations providing lobbying consultancy services must disclose the following activities:

• lobbying consultancy

• lobbying carried out on behalf of the client

• organisation’s own public relations activities.

Organisations providing lobbying consultancy services may also engage in direct lobbying. Read how to report direct lobbying.

Disclosing different types of lobbying consultancy

Lobbying consultancy activities

Lobbying consultancy providers must disclose to the Transparency Register the client provided with advice, the subject of the consultancy and the type of support given.

In lobbying consultancy work, clients are provided with support in their lobbying activities and the support may include

• planning of the client’s lobbying activities

• planning of the client’s communications and other activities

• charting the client’s key stakeholders

• using the consultancy provider’s expertise and contacts in the planning or organising of the communications

• other advice in connection with the lobbying activities.

Organisations providing lobbying consultancy services must identify the nature of their own and the clients’ activities and determine how they relate to the promotion of the clients’ interests in society at large.

Under the Act on the Finnish Transparency Register, there is no requirement to only disclose the services designated as lobbying or lobbying consultancy that have been ordered by the client. The service ordered by the client that the lobbying consultancy provider must disclose to the Transparency Register may also include communications and marketing services, internal development or legal advice. However, the lobbying consultancy provider does not need to disclose consultancy services that are outside the scope of the client’s lobbying activities.

Lobbying on behalf of the client

In lobbying carried out on behalf of the client, the following information must be disclosed to the Transparency Register: client on whose behalf the lobbying has been carried out, subject of the lobbying, lobbying targets, and the contact methods used in the lobbying.

Lobbying on behalf of the client means a business activity in which the lobbying is carried out on behalf of or in cooperation with the client.

Public relations activities of an organisation providing lobbying consultancy services

An organisation providing lobbying consultancy services must report contacts with lobbying targets outside a client relationship if their purpose is to establish contacts that are useful in the consultancy work or to exchange information with the lobbying targets. The lobbying consultancy provider must disclose the subject of its public relations activities, lobbying targets and contact methods.

Disclosing the subject and the support given

Lobbying and lobbying consultancy activities must be reported to the Transparency Register by subject.

The subject can be described in a free-form manner or by referring to the project number.

The free-form description can have a length of between 50 and 600 characters. Describe the subject, project, legislation, budget or other similar matter targeted by the lobbying. The description should be short and clear but as accurate as possible.

If the lobbying has targeted an official project, you can refer to the project using the official Government project number, in which case no free-form description is required.

For the lobbying consultancy and lobbying activities carried out on behalf of the client, the subjects in which the client has been provided with advice must be given.

For the lobbying consultancy provider’s own public relations activities, a free-form description of the content of the public relations activities must be given.

Under ‘Type of support’, you should also describe the support or services the client has received as part of the lobbying consultancy work. The type of support means the manner in which the client has been supported in its lobbying activities.

For the consultancy services provided on behalf of the client and for the organisation’s own public relations activities, you must disclose the lobbying targets that you have contacted. For the subject, all lobbying targets and the contact methods used must be disclosed.

Submitting the disclosure of activities

We will soon publish detailed instructions for submitting the disclosure of activities.