Hanover Communications
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).
Contents
'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 Insurers (ABHI).
According to a report in The Sunday Telegraph, the pitch suggested that Hanover would try to secure a picture with Gordon Brown for £5,100. It also claims 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 ABPI 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.”[1]
People
- Charles Lewington, founder and MD
- Andrew Harrison
- Sarah Richards
- James Gurling
- Josh Arnold-Forster
- Robert Sullivan
- Alessandra McKenna
- Louise Fish
- Alexa Knight
- Enda Joyce
- Sarah Pearson
- Mark Saxon
- Laura Chisholm. 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.
- Rebecca Simon[2]
Clients
- Lobbying clients listed in Feb 2009:[4]
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:[5]
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
Contact, References and Resources
Contact
100 Gray's Inn Road
London
WC1X 8AL
- Website: www.hanovercomms.com
Resources
References
- ↑ Sam Coates, "Denial from Downing St as lobbyist offers trips to No 10", The Times, 24 September 2007, accessed 28 November 2008
- ↑ The Week in Lobbying, Hanover has hired a new senior consultant from Labour Friends of Israel. Rebecca Simon makes the switch to Charles Lewington's agency, having been deputy director at LFI. (Accessed: 13 October 2008).
- ↑ Hanover Website Our people accessed 24th September 2008
- ↑ APPC register, to Nov 2009
- ↑ Hanover Website What we do accessed 24th September 2008
- ↑ Co-Sponsored event: talk by Jeremy Hunt, 29 October 2008
