Rights holders make Vaizey "most lobbied minister"
By Stewart Mitchell
Posted on 23 Feb 2012 at 01:28
The scale of rights holder lobbying to the Government has been highlighted by research that shows Culture Minister Ed Vaizey was the most lobbied minister last year.
According to the Who's Lobbying website, which tracks “meetings with outside interests”, Vaizey was involved in 148 meetings between the May General Election and December, with industry groups taking the lion's share of his time.
The site said Vaizey had seven meetings with the BPI record industry group, talked to Warner Bros on another seven occasions and met with the Publishers Association five times.
The researchers admitted that counting the number of meetings was difficult because of Vaizey's wide-ranging remit. “Ed Vaizey’s ministerial responsibilities cover two departments, BIS and DCMS. Both departments report ministerial meetings with Ed Vaizey, so there’s a chance meetings have been double counted,” Who's Lobbying said on its blog.
“Departments don’t provide exact dates for meetings, which makes it difficult to check for duplicates. It’s possible that seven or more meetings are duplicates out of the 148 reported.”
Other industry players enjoying face time with the minister included Virgin Media (five times), while the Independent Game Developers' Association, UK Interactive Entertainment Association, the British Film Institute, PRS for Music and UK Music all had four meetings with Vaizey.
Internet implications
The revelation comes at a time when rights holders are seeking more action over the perceived threat of piracy and copyright theft on the internet, with IP owners keen to see a blocking system for sites distributing pirated software.
Internet users might also be worried that the man charged with overseeing the rollout of broadband Britain, and a central figure in the move towards next-generation networks, spent such an apparently small amount of his time discussing that subject with industry. Of the 148 meetings disclosed in the official records, only six of them related to “broadband internet”.
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I'm surprised and disappointed that there is not a user group who can join in the lobbying process.
This is one of the major problems with our style of government. In any debate, one side can use it's money to exert enormous influence on ministers when the other is pretty much unrepresented.
By qpw3141 on 27 Apr 2011 
Opinion
Culture Minister Ed Vaizey Has portfolio for * Arts * Media * Museums and Galleries * Telecoms and Broadband * Digital Switchover * Creative Industries * Libraries
He also conducts surgeries in his local area on a regular basis and has an online Blog.
While I would generally approve a reduction in the size of government; this is one instance which I would propose separate ministers.
The role of communications is so huge and complicated Yet (allegedly) Ed Vaizey also has 148 meetings in the arena of being lobbied.
The extra rules coming from EU Directives 25 May 2011 will undoubtedly add more strain to his time. He has (allegedly) assured businesses that UK will not push for fines of companies tardy in complying with the new rules.
The Phorm BT privacy debacle has been quiet for awhile but is ongoing.
I hope that he changes his attitude else I envisage UK being dragged to Human Rights Courts once again.
By lenmontieth on 27 Apr 2011
Safe seat fat cat
Ed Vaizey enjoys a safe seat so can afford to spend so much time meeting people with nothing to do with his constituents; an MP in a marginal would have to spend much more time on Constituency business.
Even so, 148 meetings in 7 months is a little excessive IMO. But maybe as an old Bullingdon Boy he needs all those expensive lunches... isn't that why Cameron's Tories went into politics - for the freebies?
Vote Yes to AV. It won't get rid of Vaizey, but it will reduce the number of people in safe seats like him and create more marginals, and then maybe the balance between commercial interests and users will move more towards the users as voters will then need to be listened to a little bit more.
By SwissMac on 27 Apr 2011
@SwissMac
AV wont make the slightest difference to safe seats.
By Aspicus on 28 Apr 2011
AV pah
AV won't make difference full stop as we don't live in a democracy. Elections are merely publicity stunts to maintain the illusion of choice. As the article shows, whoever as the most money calls the shots. We live in a corporate/police state, wake up folks.
By dodge1963 on 28 Apr 2011
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