Availability: Lobbying data

To what extent is detailed lobbying information available for public use?

DefinitionsResearch GuidanceQuestion sub-componentsIndicator Justification

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, with regard to what matters, how much money is expended, and for what goals. A register should include both regular updates and updates that are responsive to lobbying activities. The best lobbying registers are rigorously reviewed and validated, 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.

Examples

• In Canada, the online Registry of Lobbyists enables the public to search and view detailed reports and statistics on lobbying activities, submitted through registrations and monthly communication reports. The data is easily accessible through search tools and can be downloaded for further analysis.

Note: This indicator pairs with a related indicator that assesses governance of lobbying data in order to compare frameworks and actual practice. While completing each one, you will likely discover further information that will help answer the sub-questions of the other, so it is suggested that you work on the pair together.

Starting points

• Sources:

  • Transparency International's Integrity Watch includes political integrity information for at least seventeen countries in Europe; depending on the country, this may include political finance data, interest and asset information, and lobbying data. Time ranges covered vary by country; for some countries data may no longer be up-to-date, but can still provide a useful starting point.

  • 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, lobbyists' goals, the date and time of interactions, topics discussed in each interaction, 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, quarterly, annually, or on some other schedule?

• 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?

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(s) for where this data can be found.

  • Data is available from government, or because of government actions.

    Supporting questions: Please provide a URL(s) for where this data can be found.

• Extent of existence:

• How nationally comprehensive is the data assessed for this indicator? (The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without data available or with data of a lesser quality., The data assessed covers one or more localities and is representative of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities., The data assessed provides national coverage.)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without data available or with data of a lesser quality. or The data assessed covers one or more localities and is representative of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.: Which locality or localities does this data cover?

  If The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without data available or with data of a lesser quality. or The data assessed covers one or more localities and is representative of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.: Please explain your response.

  If The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without data available or with data of a lesser quality. or The data assessed covers one or more localities and is representative of the kind of data that can be found for most but not all localities.: Please provide supporting URL(s) as necessary.

• How comprehensively does the data cover the branches and bodies of government? (The data covers only part of a single branch of government, or only a very limited selection of government bodies across branches., The data comprehensively covers a branch of government, or covers some selected government bodies across branches; however, notable coverage gaps remain., The data comprehensively covers all branches of government.)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If The data covers only part of a single branch of government, or only a very limited selection of government bodies across branches. or The data comprehensively covers a branch of government, or covers some selected government bodies across branches; however, notable coverage gaps remain.: Which part(s) of government does this data cover?

  If The data comprehensively covers a branch of government, or covers some selected government bodies across branches; however, notable coverage gaps remain.: Please explain any notable coverage gaps.

• Existence summary:

• Please summarize your answers to the preceding existence sub-questions, including the extent of existence. [Open Text] Drawing on the research you have conducted and the evidence you have gathered for this section, describe what you have found (or not found) when answering the existence sub-questions for this indicator.

  Supporting questions

  Please provide the URL(s) for the evidence that supports the summary provided.

Elements

• Data fields and specifics (I):

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

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) where lobbyist and official identifiers are located.

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

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) where identifying details about lobbying clients are located.

• Data fields and specifics (II):

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

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) where details about participants in lobbying interactions are located.

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

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) where details about goals of lobbying interactions are located.

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

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) where details about the dates and times of lobbying interactions are located.

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

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) where details about topics of lobbying interactions are located.

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

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) where details about expenditures on lobbying interactions are located.

• Data publication:

• The data is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes) This means that the data is accessible without any cost, unlike cases where accessing datasets requires a one-off payment or a subscription fee.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

• The data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes) This means that the data is provided under a license that clearly states that anyone may reuse it, with minimal restrictions on its reuse (e.g., attribution, share-alike).

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on reuse of the data, briefly describe those.

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

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

• The data is published with sufficient language coverage to make it accessible to all or almost all members of the public. (No, Partially, Yes) Assess this sub-question using the list of languages provided by your regional coordinator. If the country has only one official language (or de facto official language) and no national languages but there are other languages in use in the country, answer “Partially” if the data is available only in a single language. If the country has multiple official, national, or co-official regional languages, answer “Yes” if the data is available in the majority of these languages.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

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

• There are accessible and open official tools available to help users explore data. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer “Partially” if tools make it possible to get at extracts of data without having to download a full dataset. Answer “Yes” if there is an interactive tool that displays user-filtered extracts of the data to answer simple questions without downloading data at all.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially: What are the main barriers to accessibility and usability?

  If Partially or Yes: Do these tools rely on AI or machine-learning tools? For example, as interfaces. Please briefly explain.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL(s).

• The data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes) If you have also assessed an associated governance framework, evaluate timeliness by comparing against the relevant schedule laid out in that framework. If there is no such schedule, look first for other indications of an expected schedule (e.g., does the site say the data is updated once a year?), and then examine the frequency, regularity, and recency of updates.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially: If only some of the relevant data is updated, please explain which.

  If Partially or Yes: When was the most recent update to this data?

• Historical data is available that allows users to track change over time. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: For what time period(s) (i.e., start and end dates) is data available?

• The data is provided in machine-readable format(s). (No, Partially, Yes) Assess the datasets you have provided in response to this indicator’s sub-questions; if there are multiple datasets, use the best example you can locate in terms of availability of open data. Note this selection in the elements summary box and then also answer the following sub-question (on bulk downloading) with respect to that specific dataset.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

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

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) where machine-readable data is located.

• 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: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide the URL(s) 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.

• Negative scoring:

• 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 the indicator itself identifies a dataset(s) to assess against—or a separate governance indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework—assess against that. In cases where there is no such identified dataset(s) or related governance indicator, please assess based on: the parameters laid out in the publication of the information (e.g., are some fields entirely empty when they shouldn't be?); your local knowledge (e.g., if the data is supposed to include information for all public officials, does the number of total entries seem reasonable?); and any broader research you may have done for this topic (e.g., have media articles decried the incompleteness of this data?). Note: this sub-question examines omissions only of mandated data; so if, for example, laws do not require the reporting of data below certain thresholds, that data is not considered “missing.”

  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.

• Nonscoring:

• There is evidence of use of this data. (No, Partially, Yes) Answer “Yes” for more than one example; answer “Partially” for a single example.

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please explain your “Partially” response.

  If Partially or Yes: In the example(s) provided, who is using this data? E.g., government, civil society, private sector, media, academia, others.

  If Partially or Yes: In the example(s) provided, for what purpose(s) is the data being used? E.g., for accountability, to improve access for marginalized populations, to influence policy for equity or inclusion, for red flag analysis, etc.

  If Partially or Yes: Please provide URL(s) for example(s).

• Elements summary:

• Please summarize your answers to the preceding element sub-questions. [Open Text] Drawing on the research you have conducted and the evidence you have gathered for this section, describe what you have found (or not found) when answering the element sub-questions for this indicator.

  Supporting questions

  Please provide the URL(s) for the evidence that supports the summary provided.

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 designed, 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.

To understand both gaps and best practices across the world, this indicator investigates the data on lobbying activities that countries make available.