News - PressStatements

The CIPR Government Affairs Group has announced the results of its member survey carried out late last year with polling company Communicate Research.

The top line results of the survey of members (both CIPR and non-CIPR) were that GAG was generally viewed by the overwhelmingly majority of respondents as fit for purpose: over 91% said they were either fairly or very satisfied with the services that the Group provided. However, there was an appetite for the Group to move to an even higher level. There was particular support for the Group to move towards “workshop type” meetings with a more practical focus and strong support for the Group to organise an annual public affairs conference.

The membership of the group was also polled and while 36% of members work for consultancy firms the majority work in-house as specialist public affairs practitioners for corporates, the voluntary sector and other bodies. The membership of the Group was found to be relatively senior across the industry with 32% of members having at least 5 years experience and a further 19% with over 10 years.

Touching on recent debates within the industry the survey asked about the employment of serving Parliamentarians on the board of organisations. 79% of respondents confirmed that their employer did not do so. There was also an immense appetite for a unified code of conduct across the industry and on the question of whether there was a role for the creation of a unified representative body for the public affairs sector with both corporate and individual membership a very large 70% supported such a call.

Chairman of the Group, Robert Khan said:

“By teaming up with Communicate Research we were able to carry out a strong evidence based consultation to really get to the heart of what our members think about some of the pressing issues facing the public affairs industry.

"I was particularly keen to gauge opinions on the debate that has been aired in the pages of Public Affairs News in recent months over whether the industry needs a single unified voice and whether we should be moving forward with a more generic Code of Conduct, perhaps with the APCC and PRCA. This view has been emphatically endorsed. I will be working with Gill Morris and Rod Cartwright to this effect and with Lionel Zetter - as the President of the CIPR - who has made public affairs priorities one of the key planks of his year of office.
We will also look further into the possibility of an annual conference on public affairs in the very near future and look to further innovations such as the annual lecture we introduced last year as well as our re-launched website at www.ciprgag.org.uk”

ENDS.