Industry and Parliament Trust
The Industry and Parliament trust is a corporate-Parliament partnership designed to increase the influence of business and give business privileged access to MPs at Westminster. It provided the model for the development of the Scottish Parliament Business Exchange
It describes itself as follows on its website:
- Established in 1977, the Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) is a registered charity dedicated to fostering mutual understanding between business and Parliament for the public benefit. The Trust is independent, non-partisan and non-lobbying.
- IPT facilitates educational exchange Fellowships for MPs, MEPs, Peers and Officers of both Houses with a range of companies from different sectors of commerce and industry.
- IPT organises a range of study programmes and events for companies in Westminster and in Brussels.
- IPT arranges attachment schemes for civil servants enabling them to see the parliamentary process at first hand in the company of an MP.
Members
- Aberdeen Asset Management
- Aggregate Industries
- AGN Shipley
- American Express
- The Argyll Consultancies
- ARM Ltd
- BAE Systems
- Bank of England
- Barclays
- BASF
- Bloomberg
- The BOC Group plc
- The Boots Group plc
- Bovince
- BP plc
- BP Marsh & Partners
- British American Tobacco
- British Nuclear Fuels Limited
- British Telecommunications
- BUPA
- Cannons Group
- The CarbonNeutral Company
- Centrica
- ConocoPhillips
- David Ramsden Associates
- Degussa UK Holdings
- DHL International UK
- EMAP plc
- Esso UK plc
- Federation of Small Businesses
- Flower City
- Gala Group
- GE Healthcare
- GKN plc
- GlaxoSmithKline UK
- The Go-Ahead Group
- Hepher Dixon
- Imperial College
- Imperial Tobacco
- ITN
- ITV
- John Lewis Partnership
- Johnson and Johnson
- Kingston University
- KPMG
- Ladbrokes Ltd
- Lloyd's of London
- Lloyds/TSB Bank
- Manchester Airport Group
- Marks and Spencer
- Marsh
- Mitchells & Butler
- Motorola
- Muncaster Visitor Management
- Nationwide Building Society
- Nestle UK
- Network Rail
- Norsk Hydro (UK) Ltd
- Northumbrian Water Limited
- O2
- Pfizer Limited
- Pilkington
- Pineapple Developments
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Reed Elsevier
- Rio Tinto
- Royal Armouries
- Royal Holloway University of London
- The Royal Bank of Scotland
- RWE npower
- Severn Trent Water Limited
- Shell International Ltd
- Short Brothers plc
- The Simon Martin Group
- Smiths Group
- The Standard Life Assurance Company
- Tesco Stores
- Thales
- Thomas H. Loveday
- Total
- Tunstall Group
- Unilever
- United Kingdom Nirex
- University of Bristol
- UPS Ltd
- Waste Recycling Group Ltd
Mission Statement
The IPT percives itself as guided by this mission:
- "To ensure that the United Kingdom has the best business-informed Parliament and the best parliamentary-informed business community in Europe."
The IPT defines itself as having 'Charitable Objects' but also engages in the promotion of industry and commerce. It seeks to enhance "efficient and effective administration of government for the benefit of the public". And it believes that this is achieved by "promoting mutual understanding between legislators and wealth generators from all sectors of business." Ultimately then, the IPT seeks a pluralist approach. [1]
History
The IPT was established in 1977 by the Chief Executives of 10 major British companies to develop an understanding by management about Parliament through ‘dialogues’ between Parliamentarians and companies. The IPT state that Sir Leslie Smith was instrumental in its founding and also a director of the BOC group, which also comprised:
Richard Giodano: Grand Metropolitan, Lucas Industries, RTZ and National Power;
Paul Bosonnet: BT, MAM Group and Logica;
Desmond O' Connell: Lucas Industries, McKinsey & Co.;
Robert Malpas: ICI, PowerGen, BP, Barings, The Channel Tunnel Group and Eurotunnel;
Croker Nevin: Drexel Burham Lambert, The US Postal Service;
Patrick Rich: Societe Generale De Survelliance and the Van Leer Foundation;
Baron Christopher Tugendhat: Abbey National, LWT, the Civil Aviation Authority, Commercial Union, the Nat West Bank, Eurotunnel plc, chair of the RIIA (Chatham House), Governor of the Ditchley Foundation
Dick Taverne: the president of PRIMA Europe, a former Labour MP (a former minister for State at the Treasury during the dark days of 1968-69) who then moved to the SDP, then Liberal Democrats, chair of the Public Policy Centre (1984-87), OLIM Investment Trust, Equity and law
