Hanover Communications

This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

Hanover Communications is a UK-based PR and lobbying firm founded in 1998 by Charles Lewington. The firm was known as Media Strategy until 2007. It lobbies for a large number of pharmaceutical companies (see clients below).

Controversies, conflicts of interest and the revolving door

'Cash for access'

Hanover was criticised in September 2007 in what was dubbed a 'cash for access' story. A strategy document that Hanover had produced suggested it could organise a trip to Downing Street as part of a £181,000 bid to run the Medical Technology Group, a coalition of industry and patient groups linked to the Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI).

According to a report in The Sunday Telegraph, the pitch suggested Hanover would try to secure a picture with Gordon Brown for £5,100. It also claimed that it would seek access to Dawn Primarolo, the Paymaster General. The package was offered for Medical Technology Week, in which a group of patients visits the Treasury, Department of Health and No 10. “We will work to secure photocalls with ministers. The key photocall will be with Gordon Brown,” it says. A document sent to the ABHI also mentions Nicola Murphy, a former adviser to Mr Brown.

Ms Murphy was to join Hanover as an associate director the following month. The pitch says: “As well as ... a five-year spell in the Treasury, Nicola has been working in the Prime Minister’s private parliamentary office for 12 months handling Gordon Brown’s leadership election.”

Revolving door

Many Hanover staffers have backgrounds in politics.

In April 2014 former Department for Environment and Climate Change (DECC) policy adviser Alison Woodhouse joined the firm as head of its energy and resources division. A month later Hanover secured Julia Goldsworthy, longstanding Treasury SPaD to Danny Alexander and former shadow Lib Dem, chief secretary to the Treasury, as a senior policy adviser.. Goldsworthy has been re-selected as Lib Dem candidate for Camborne and Redruth, a seat she lost by just 66 votes to the Tories in 2010.

People

• Charles Lewington. Founder and MD.
• Andrew Harrison
• Laura Chisholm. Senior Account Director. Chisholm joined in August 2008 from financial sector lobbying firm Cicero and is a former lobbyist at HBOS and environment desk officer in the shadow Conservative cabinet. She was hired to head up a new advisory service for financial clients. In October 2010 she was the lead for new Hanover client Goldman Sachs.
• Rebecca Simon
• Lucy Gilchrist was appointed a Senior Account director in November 2010 and handled clients such as fracking firm Cuadrilla until she left in February 2014 to become head of external affairs at PepsiCo
• Julia Goldsworthy - former special advisor from 2010-14 to Lib Dem Danny Alexander at the UK Treasury
• Alison Woodhouse. Former strategic policy manager at the Department for Energy and Climate Change until April 2014 when she took over as Hanover's head of energy and resources (announced February 2014).
• Sarah Richards
• James Gurling
• Josh Arnold-Forster
• Robert Sullivan
• Alessandra McKenna
• Louise Fish
• Alexa Knight
• Enda Joyce
• Sarah Pearson
• Mark Saxon

Clients

Lobbying for the booze industry

In Sept 2007 drinks giant Diageo hired lobbying firm Hanover Communications as its retained UK public affairs agency, to help it in what Diageo described as "challenging policy environment" - The Government was stepping up its efforts to curb binge-drinking. Diageo is thought to be paying Hanover at least £100,000 a year. Hanover MD Charles Lewington said: ‘We will be helping Diageo to raise awareness of its ­responsible-drinking ­activities in government. We will also be ­advising on ­ongoing ­discussions with ­officials about the best way of ­promoting responsible ­consumption.’

Lobbying for bankers

In October 2010 Goldman Sachs appointed Hanover as 'fresh agency backing in the UK to help it to keep abreast of the coalition government’s plans for the banking sector" according to Public Affair News. Hanover is working alongside Lexington Communications providing UK political consultancy, and Cicero Consulting, which provides Goldman with EU monitoring. Leading the account for Hanover is senior account director Laura Chisholm.

In April 2011 the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) secured Hanover to raise its profile across Europe. Formed in late 2009, the AFME lobbies national and international governmental institutions on behalf of the financial industry against what it deems to be unnecessary regulation. The account is thought to be worth in excess of six figures annually, and was to be led by director Laura Chisholm.

Lobbying for frackers

Hanover handles two high-profile controversial Cuadrilla and Irish shale explorer Tamboran accounts.

PRCA Register to May 2014

3UK Accenture | Airbus Group | Alliance Medical American Pharmaceutical Group (APG) Amgen | Association of Financial Markets in Europe | BSkyB | Cuadrilla Deltex Medical | DHL | EuropaBio Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) Goldman Sachs | H.E.A.R.T. UK | MetLife | Microsoft | MSD | Napp | National Football League (NFL) | Open Government Partnership | Shire Tamboran Tata Consultancy Services | Blackberry Bounty (i) British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) British Insurance Brokers' Association British Poultry Council HCA John Lewis Partnership Lancaster Investment Management Lilly UK | Lloyds Banking Group McKesson | The Crown Estate UCB | United Health UK / Optum | Valero

APPC Register

• Fee-paying lobbying clients listed 1 June - 31 August 2011:

Alliance Medical | American Pharmaceutical Group (APG) | B&Q | BSkyB | British Beer and Pub Association | Deltex Medical | Chartered Management Institute (CMI) | Edison Learning | Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) | GE | Goldman Sachs | Government of Alberta | H.E.A.R.T. UK | Hewlett Packard Enterprise Solutions | HomeSun| i-CD Publishing | Jaguar Land Rover London Metropolitan University | Microsoft | NHS National Screening Committee | Nomura | Novartis | Pearson UK | Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) | Santander | Sanofi-Aventis | SITA UK | Smith and Nephew | United Health

• Lobbying clients listed in Feb 2009:

3 UK | Abbey | Alliance Medical | American Pharmaceutical Group (APG). Comprising: (Abbot | Amgem | Bristol-Myers Squibb | Janssen-Cilag | Lilly | Merck Sharp & Dohme | Pfizer | Proctor & Gamble Pharmaceuticals | Schering-Plough | Wyeth) | AstraZeneca | Bavarian Nordic | BSkyB | Cancer Partners UK | Deltex Medical | Diageo | EDAP TMS | Fortis | Hospital Corporation of America | H.E.A.R.T. UK | Hertfordshire Oil Storage | Hutchison Whampoa (Europe) Ltd | Lockheed Martin UK | Microsoft | Monitor | Novartis | Police Federation | Pru Health | Royal British Legion | Sanofi-aventis | Unilever | United Health | Wyeth

• PR and lobbying clients listed on Hanover website September 2008:

Alliance Medical | American Pharmaceutical Group | Apposite Capital | Association of British Healthcare Industries | Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry | AstraZeneca | Bavarian Nordic | Cholesterol UK | Cancer Partners UK | Cass Business School | Celerant Consulting | Diageo | Defence Medical Welfare Service | Deltex Medical | Dimbleby Cancer Care | Dr Foster Intelligence | DMWS - The St. John and Red Cross Defence Medical Welfare Service | Edap | Fortis | Global Value | Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd | Hospital Corporation of America | Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority | HEART UK | Hutchison 3G (UK) | Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales | Intelligent Finance | Kepner-Tregoe | Lockheed Martin | Menzies Aviation | Mizuho International | Monitor | Monterrico Metals | Nationwide | Nationwide Commercial | Nikko Investments | pfeg | Police Federation | The Portland Hospital for Woman and Children | The Priory Group | Rio Tinto | Royal British Legion | SafeHands for Mothers | SAGA | Schering-Plough | Shell Foundation | Social Enterprise Coalition | NHS Cancer Screening Programmes | NHS Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia Screening Programme | Ramsay Healthcare UK | Teachers' TV | The Leadership Centre for Local Government | Unilever | United Health Europe | Wates | Wyeth

Affiliations

• Polis – co-sponsor events

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

100 Gray's Inn Road London WC1X 8AL

Website: www.hanovercomms.com

References

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