Disney, GKN and Samsung's lobbying policies among worst in UK

Disney, GKN and Samsung are among the companies labeled worst offenders regarding their political lobbying policies in the UK, Transparency International reported in its latest study published on Monday.

The report into corporate political engagement revealed that most UK businesses (out of the 104 companies analysed) need to review their practices with 73% of firms failing to "adequately disclose" their lobbying.

Only GSK achieved a top rating on the A to F scale for transparency of political engagement and none of the companies reported their global spending on such practices in 2017.

Kathryn Higgs, the director of Transparency International’s UK business integrity programme, said: “There are some pockets where it’s clear that some companies haven’t thought about managing certain risks, such as the ‘revolving door’.”

The report criticises the “revolving door” between government and business, with 97 out of the 104 firms ranking poorly on issues such as “cooling off” periods for former ministers taking up top jobs in the private sector.

Facebook and Amazon were viewed as among the worst performing companies in the "responsible lobbying" category.

Google scored the lowest out of the so-called FAANG companies – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google – in terms of the revolving door.

"Businesses must be far more transparent in how they engage with politicians or they risk damaging their reputations with the public and in the long-run will themselves lose out,” added Higgs.

A government spokeswoman said: “Since 2010 the UK has been at the forefront of opening up data to allow parliament, the public and the media to hold public bodies to account. This government openly publishes details of ministers’ external meetings on a quarterly basis.”

She added: “Transparency is crucial for accountability, delivering the best value for money, cutting waste and inefficiency and ensuring every pound of taxpayers’ money is spent in the best possible way.”

Companies rated by Transparency International within bands A to F

A (the company demonstrates excellent standards): GSK

B (the company demonstrates good standards): 3M, Barclays, Centrica, IBM, National Grid, Pearson, Siemens, Sky, SSE, Standard Chartered

C (the company demonstrates fair standards): Anglo American, Apple Inc, Atkins, BASF, BAT, BHP, Cisco, Experian, Iberdrola, KPMG, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, RWE, Equinor, Telefónica, Vodafone, WPP.

D (the company demonstrates fairly poor standards): Aviva, BAE Systems, BT Group, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, General Electric, Google, HP Enterprise, HSBC, Legal & General, Lloyds, Nestlé, PwC, RBS, Roche, Shire, Unilever.

E (the company demonstrates poor standards): AB InBev, ABB, Amazon, ABF, AstraZeneca, Babcock, Balfour Beatty, BMW, BP, Caterpillar, Compass Group, CRH, DP World, E.ON, Eisai, Facebook, Glencore, Imperial Tobacco, Jaguar Land Rover, Johnson Matthey, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, P&G, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Prudential, RB Group, RELX, Rio Tinto, Rolls-Royce, Sabic, Shell, Syngenta, Tesco, Time Warner.

F (the company demonstrates very poor standards): Associated British Ports, Bombardier, CK Hutchison, Diageo, Disney, EY, Ford, GKN, Hitachi, Honda, Huawei, Imagination Technologies, INEOS, JCB, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mondelez International, Nissan, PCCW, SAGE, Samsung, Softbank, TATA Group, Toshiba, Toyota.