Skip to content

Availability: Lobbying data

The following indicator is under consideration for this pilot edition of the Barometer: To what extent is lobby register information available as open data?

Feedback on draft Global Data Barometer Indicators

You are looking at a draft indicator to be included in the expert survey of the Global Data Barometer. Between now and May 10th we are inviting your feedback on this indicator and the elements it contains. You can provide your feedback by (a) completing the feedback form below; or (b) adding in-line annotations.

Feedback form

You can share your feedback on the Availability: Lobbying data indicator here, or make use of Hypothes.is annotations

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

  • Is this data available online in any form?
    • Data is not available online
      Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g. attending an office to inspect it)
    • Data is available, but not as a result of government action
      Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL for where this data can be found
    • Data is available from government, or because of government actions
      Supporting questions: Please provide a URL for where this data can be found

Elements

Part 1: Data structure and openness.

  • Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    When was the most recent update to this dataset?

  • Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

    If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

  • Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

  • Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

    If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

  • The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

    If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

Part 2: Data fields and quality assessment.

  • The data contains unique identifiers for each lobbyist and public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • The data contains clear identifying information for each lobbying client. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • The data contains participant details for each interaction between a lobbyist and a public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • The data contains information about lobbyists' goals for lobbying activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • The data contains time details for each interaction between a lobbyist and a public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • The data contains information about the topic of each interaction between a lobbyist and a public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • The data contains information about the money spent on each interaction between a lobbyist and a public official. (No, Partially, Yes)

Part 3: Barriers to data availability or quality.

  • This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where a separate indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information, your local knowledge, and any broader research you may have done for this theme.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

  • The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

  • How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
    • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.
      Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?
    • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for all, or most, localities.
    • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Definitions and Identification

A lobbying register should include details on lobbyists, lobbying clients, and public officials, and track the contacts and transactions that occur between lobbyists and public officials, including when and with regard to what matters and how much money is exxpended. A register should include both regular updates and updates that are responsive to lobbying activities. The best lobbying registers are rigorously verified, either by an agency with a mandate to investigate reports and sanction violations, through cross-verification of a public official's and lobbyist's records, or both.

Although lobbying scandals occur worldwide, relatively few countries currently have frameworks that govern lobbying activities. The frameworks—and consequently datasets—that do exist appear across levels of government; in some cases multiple frameworks exist at the same level of government.

Starting points

  • Sources:

    • The Sunlight Foundation assessed the different kinds of databases associated with lobbying registers in 2016; the most right-hand column includes links. (Note: all of the links to the spreadsheet itself are currently inaccessible, but the linked article has an accessible version embedded about halfway through.)

  • Search:

    • The lobbying register's site for details about data downloads, possible data formats, or APIs.

  • Consult:

    • Investigative journalists who report on lobbying or money in politics more broadly, particularly any who appear to be using aggregate lobbying data.
    • Officials of civil society organizations that advocate for transparency and accountability regarding money in politics.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

  • What information about lobbying activities does the data include? For example, does it include information about the identity of participants, the date and time of activities, lobbyists' goals for activities, topics, and cost?
  • Is the data not just regularly updated, but updated in a timely manner? For example, is it updated in response to lobbying activities or in response to a calendar year or other unit?
  • Is there evidence of missing data, assessed first against the related governance framework, if that exists, or in the context of the datasets in front of you?
  • Is there evidence that the availability of this data was affected by COVID-19?

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, data about lobbying activities may be generated and published at the sub-national level, ****carried out by individual states, regions or cities.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

  • National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
  • Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where administrative data about violence against women is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier, or an example of widespread practice.

In recent years lobbying has become an area of increasing regulation, with a priority placed on understanding who specifically lobbies. Thus, regulations typically require some form of lobbying register. Depending on how registers are construed, they may include not only identities of lobbyists but also transaction data regarding meetings, briefs, and gifts. Such registers ground a great deal of new empirical research (see, e.g., Bombardini and Trebbi 2020; de Figueiredo and Richter 2014) on lobbying. At the same time, they have gaps: different definitions of what requires reporting, sometimes within the same level of government (e.g., Mexico); more or less stringent sanction and cross-verification practices; differing capabilities for surfacing grassroots lobbying.