Taxpayer funded lobbying exposed
Tuesday, August 4, 2009 
The Taxpayers Alliance has published a new report entitled "Taxpayer Funded Lobbying and Political Campaigning". There's a section on campaigns for health policy and lifestyle changes that refers to the £191,000 given to ASH by the Department of Health. According to the TPA, "The funding was intended to support the next phase of the ASH campaign "Smoking Kills".
When I highlighted this in a letter to the Sunday Telegraph last year, Peter Kellner, chairman of YouGov (who conduct polls for ASH), took issue with me and denied that this money was used for its "Beyond Smoking Kills" report. See HERE.
I don't doubt Kellner's sincerity, but I suspect that the following email (received from a reader this morning) is nearer to the truth:
If taxpayer funded lobbying is prohibited, "fake charities" could still receive money and use all sorts of tricks to say that taxpayer money is not used for lobbying. No matter what way you cut this it's rubbish due to the very simple concept of cross subsidisation.
The only sure fire way to eliminate this misuse of taxpayer money is to say that "no organisation that engages in lobbying activity should receive funds from the government and no organisation that receives money from government many engage in lobbying activity or make donations (and that word would need to be broadly defined) either directly or indirectly to organisations that engage in lobbying activity".
"Taxpayer Funded Lobbying and Political Campaigning" can be viewed HERE. Worth reading.
See also: fakecharities.org
Reader Comments (6)
ASH doesn't provide a service. It doesn't have a quit-line or provide support for smokers who wish to quit. It doesn't go round schools talking to kids. The ONLY thing it does, in various ways, is lobby the government. To pretend otherwise is nonsense.
Yes, but in charity terms it probably easily manages to satisfy the public benefit test.
I really do not understand how public monies get to be paid to ASH by the Health Dept at all. Does Ash CARE for sick people in some way? Are they PART of the NHS? Does lobbying, in any way shape or form, add one jot or tickle to the standards of care in our hospitals?
Does anyone know how one might be able to complain to the Parliamentary Audit Commission?
Junican,
My wife is head of fundraising for one of the major charities, so I emailed her with your question. Here is her reply:
"It is a very complex area- ASH's aims are:
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is a campaigning public health charity that works to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco.
The Charity Commission rules on being a registered charity are:
Identifiable benefit/s
Benefit must be to public or section of the public
I had a look at some of the types of help charities must provide and I found this:
"the advancement of health and saving of lives"
I would imagine that if the government of the day are saying that smoking endangers lives then this will fit it.
For more information see their website:
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/about_charities.asp "
More for Junican. You have really got my wifed hooked now. She has just sent me two more emails about this, see below:
There are other things that you could "get them" with:
1) ask for the audited annual accounts which they have to provide under the Freedom of Information Act - check what government funding they are getting. They are not allowed to accept straightforward donations - only apply for money from funding streams they provide - check this out! Might be money from those companies that provide nicotin replacements - is that strictly legal?
2) look on this link - they have lots of information where on the tobacco industry calling them liars etc. have a look at the link:
http://www.ash.org.uk/ash_r3iitasl.htm
You need someone who is a "legal type person" to pour over their accounts and look into their site. They could complain to the charity commission if they found something that went against their guidelines.
_______________________________________________
Very interesting - ASH'S main funders of British Heart Foundation and
cancer Research UK and the rest is Department of Health! Frances
During the financial year 2007-08, 53% of ASH*s funding was provided
by the
British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK. Funding from the
Department of Health accounted for 31% of ASH*s income. A full copy
of the
audited accounts for the financial year ended 31st March 2008 can be
found
on the ASH website at: www.ash.org.uk/accounts2008
Peter T
Thanks for your info.
Two years ago my wife and I bought a flat screen Grundig TV. After 20 months, we noticed that the screen had acquired black streaks in various places. I found out the address of Grundig in this country and emailed and wrote to them, describing the problem (before two years had elapsed - two years is very important - see EU directive bla bla). To be fair, Grundig were reasonable, but asked me to get a TV engineer to examine the TV set. This is not easy because there are not that many TV engineers about. However, I found one locally. The engineer said that the LCD display was faulty.
Having this info, I then waited a few months in order to allow the screen fault 'to develop' - which it did - the problem went worse.
I then pestered Grundig to death, and eventually they agreed to replace the TV. It cost me £120, but we have a brand new TV - a better TV than we had before.
The point of this (as I am sure that you are aware) is that one has to pester people to get the info that you want.
I have in mind to pester whoever to find out how this arrangement to pay ASH taxpayers' money, came about. It may not be easy and it may take some time.
I have printed out your suggestions and will report in due course.