unlock democracy's annual report 2011-2012

8/22/2019 Unlock Democracy's Annual Report 2011-2012

1/19

Unlock Democracy

Annual Report 2011/12

UnlockDemocracy


2/19

3

Finally, let me take this opportunity to welcome ournew council - a real mixture of old and new faces.Unlock Democracy thrives on engagement with ourmembers - please do get involved.

Thank you.

P.S. We have also moved ofces this year - our newaddress is 37 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8PQ.Our phone and email details are the same.

The past few years have been marked by thecorrupt politics of self interest. Still reeling fromthe MPs expenses scandal, in the last year wehave been rocked by the revelations of phonehacking, lobbyists bragging about being able tobuy inuence, party donors being jailed for nancialcorruption, and the banking sector seemingly beingable to rig things for their own benet. The needfor reform has never been clearer and respondingto this distortion of our politics has dened our

campaigns strategy over the last 12 months.

Over 20,000 people have taken part in our actions,building activity across the country and puttingpressure on those who would oppose reforms.

As a result we have seen widespread acceptance ofthe need for a universal register of lobbying activity.Even on House of Lords reform it was clear that wehad won the argument amongst MPs, only to loseout to party politics.

This has been a year of mobilising and revitalisingour campaigns. We continue to grow as anorganisation and a campaigning force, building ourprole in parliament and the media.

Unlock Democracy37 Grays Inn Rd,LondonWC1X 8PQ

Tel: 020 7278 4443Web: www.unlockdemocracy.org.ukEmail: [email protected]

Foreword by Peter Facey3

4-5

6-7

8-9

10-11

12-13

14-15

16-17

18-19

20-21

22-23

24-25

26-27

28-29

30-31

32-33

34-35

Foreword by Peter Facey

Staff

Council, Management Board and Rodell

Campaigns Introduction

Lobbying

Lords

Party Funding

Electoral Registration

Local Works

Parliamentary Work

Coalition Work

Vote Match

Membership

Local Groups

Volunteers

Finance

Afterword: The upcoming agenda


3/19

5

Peter Facey Director

Campaigns & Membership

James Graham Campaigns & Communications ManagerEmily Randall Campaigns & Outreach OfcerJohn Franglen Membership OfcerZoe Stavri Communications Assistant

Citizenship, Policy and ResearchAlexandra Runswick Deputy Director - Parliamentary and Policy ManagerMatthew Oliver Vote Match National Co-ordinator with part time responsibilities as Projects& Press ManagerJon Narcross Research AssistantSteve Shaw Local Works National Co-ordinatorDan Flanagan Grants Ofcer with part time responsibilities as Local Works Project Ofcer

Amenah Enayat Local Works Outreach Specialist

Ofce Support Team

Osman Mustafa Finance OfcerMargaret Mathews Finance OfcerSimon Howard Ofce Manager

Welcome to Ameneh, John, Jon and Zoe!

John Franglen joined the Campaigns and Membership team as ourMembership Ofcer in January 2012, he has been leading on supportfor our members and improving our fundraising. We are also pleased toannounce Zoe Stavri will be joining the team as our Communications

Assistant, she will be working on external communications.

Our Citizenship, Policy and Research team welcomes Jon Narcrossas our new Research Assistant. He will be working closely with the

Deputy Director to provide an evidence base for Unlock Democracyscampaigns.

Ameneh Enayat is the new Outreach Specialist in the Local Works team.She will be building links with under-represented groups and inspiringthem to use the Sustainable Communities Act.

Goodbye and thank you to Jack and Alex

Jack Maizels, our Research Assistant, left the organisation in September2012 to work for TfL in Modelling & Transport Planning. Alex Rawle, ourVote Match Assistant left in November 2011 to work at the Open RoadConsultancy as a researcher.

Staff


4/19

7

Unlock Democracys council, elected every 2 years, providesa democratic underpinning for the organisation, giving themembers who support us the ability to set our direction.

Rodell Properties Ltd. (Rodell) is a wholly owned subsidiaryof Unlock Democracy. It manages two properties in CentralLondon (6-9 Cynthia Street and 37 Grays Inn Road). Theprots of Rodell help to fund Unlock Democracys campaignsand activities.

This year we held our elections for 2012-14, with twice asmany candidates as weve ever had before.

Council

Vicky Seddon (Chair)Phil Starr (Vice Chair Rodell)Stuart Weir (Vice Chair Policy)

Rosemary BechlerAndrew BlickLiz CarltonChris CarriganStephen Carter

Alan DebenhamEithne GeorgeStuart HillPeter HirstFinola KellySusan MurrayOwais RajputMary SouthcottJohn StraffordDiana WallisDanny Zinkus-Sutton

Management Board

Vicky Seddon (Chair)Phil Starr (Vice Chair Rodell)Stuart Weir (Vice Chair Policy)

Stuart HillPeter HirstFinola KellyMary SouthcottDanny Zinkus-Sutton

Rodell Properties Ltd

Directly elected by members:

Rosemary BechlerChris CarriganStephen Carter

Alan Debenham

Appointed by Management Board:

Stuart Hill

Vicky SeddonPhil Starr

Council,

Management Board

and Rodell


5/19

9

Over the last 12 months, we have seendramatic changes to the way we campaign.

After a year where we focused on one issuewith the AV referendum, we moved back to abroader remit.

Our biggest improvement this year has beenin technology and resources. Our websitehad a massive overhaul, resulting in not justa new look but also critical campaigns webtools behind the scenes. This has enabled usto organise more successful and engagingcampaigns.

We have worked hard to ensure our research,parliamentary work and supporter activity ismutually reinforcing. As well as submittingour own evidence to select committees andgovernment consultations, we have sought todevelop innovative ways to involve the public.

Underlying all our campaigns is the ethosof aiming to create a culture of informedinterest and responsibility. Our membersare at the centre of our campaigns

with our membership survey and in theimplementation. Our Council and staff workclosely to set our campaigns objectives. Wehave offered our supporters a broad rangeof campaign actions, both online and ofine.

Campaigns

After a year of development andinnovation, Unlock Democracy is nowin its strongest position yet to enableanyone to campaign for a better, fairer

democracy.


6/19

11

A founding member of the Alliance forLobbying Transparency, Unlock Democracycampaigns for the introduction of a robustpublic register of lobbying covering acomprehensive range of activities - andnancial information.

In the face of lobbying scandals dominatingthe headlines, the governments green

paper, published in January, was a majordisappointment, uniting both the lobbyingindustry and transparency campaignersin opposition. We worked with Spinwatchto produce a practical set of alternativeproposals, with a specic focus ondemonstrating how a lobbying register canbe both robust and simple to administer.

The government is due to publish a furtherset of proposals shortly. We are cautiouslyoptimistic that these will be an improvement,but anticipate further work will need to bedone to ensure they are as robust as possible.

Building support for a statutory register

In October-December 2011, organised a letterwriting campaign. Over 2,600 people wroteto ask their MPs to demand the governmentpublish its proposals.

Once the governments proposals werepublished, got more than 7,300 people to signour joint letter to demand tougher rules. A further1,300 made individual consultation responses.

Coordinated a joint response with 27 othercampaigning organisations to demand a morerobust register.

Held a public meeting in Birmingham with theminister in charge of lobbying regulation, MarkHarper. Held further public meetings in Shefeld,Leicester and Manchester.

Open Up Lobbying

OpenUpLobbying


7/19

13

Over the past ve years, Unlock Democracy hascampaigned for a democratic second chamber witha minimum of 80% elected using a proportionalrepresentation system.

2012 was the rst time in history a government hadpublished a bill proposing direct elections to the Lords.While party politics has prevented this legislationprogressing through Parliament, the vote in the House ofCommons has demonstrated that MPs overwhelminglysupport the principle of democratic reform.

Building the case for reform:

Produced original research demonstrating the truelevel of expertise in the House of Lords, that peersare no more independent of party whips than MPs,and the low participation rates of a number of peerswho claim the most in parliamentary expenses.

Developed policy on giving the public a right to vetoLords reform.

Got more than 4,000 people to take part in oursurvey which contributed a part of our evidence tothe Joint Committee; just under 2,500 went on tocontribute their own comments.

Commissioned YouGov polling in April 2012 to showthe extent of public support for reforming the Lords.

Building support for reform:

Produced extensive brieng materialsfor MPs and journalists.

Got more than 2,600 supporters to writeto their MPs in the fortnight before thesecond reading of the House of LordsReform Bill.

Campaigned extensively online viaFacebook, Twitter and our own blog,

reaching just under 200,000 people perweek on Facebook running up to thesecond reading.

Lords Reform


8/19

15

Unlock Democracy campaigns to radicallyoverhaul how political parties are funded toreduce the disproportionate power of moneyin politics. Our long term goal is to establish acap on donations to political parties at 5,000-10,000 per year. We are working towards anexpanded system of state funding of parties. Bygiving parties the incentive to raise funds fromas large a pool of small donors as possible, webelieve this will level the playing eld.

In October 2011, the Committee on Standards inPublic Life produced a report on party funding, thekey recommendation of which was for a 10,000cap on donations from individuals, companiesand organisations. The main party leaders movedquickly to shut down the debate but have nowbeen forced into cross-party talks following afurther series of scandals.

Party Funding

Party Funding

Building the case for reform:

Research on trade union afliation fees Analysis of trends in the quarterly

donation reports

Building Support for Reform:

Launched Donor of the Week - blogposts highlighting the premier leaguedonors for each party and other partyfunding related issues

5,600 people signed our petition infavour of a cap on donations

In 2011/12, we set ourselves the target ofestablishing ourselves as a leading organisationspecialising in party funding, and to raise theprole of the issue. We have been largelysuccessful, with the media increasingly comingto us rather than the other way around. We arecontinuing to work to raise the issues prole andinuence the secretive ongoing cross-party talks.


9/19

17

We raised concerns in September 2011 that government plansto introduce individual elector registration would cause millions

of people to fall off the electoral register and immediatelylaunched a campaign.

Unlock Democracy supports individual elector registration as atool for ghting voter fraud, but if it is poorly introduced, thereis a risk it will lead to more socially mobile populations suchas young people, ethnic minorities, poorer people, as well asurban areas being drastically underrepresented. Combined withplans to change the electoral boundaries, this could have adevastating impact on excluding some of the most vulnerable insociety from the political system. It would also have a negativeimpact on the jury system, which depends on a comprehensiveelectoral register.

We successfully persuaded government to drop its plansto introduce a legal right opt-out of registering to vote.We are continuing to monitor the situation to ensure thatthe transition to individual elector registration is as smoothas possible. With the government boundary review policyin tatters, we will be pushing for a boundary systemwhich reects on the actual population of an area, not justregistered voters.

Putting the pressure on:

got more than 2,100 individuals to express concernwith their MP

over 750 individuals submitted their views to theconsultation using our online tool

submitted evidence to the government consultationand met with civil servants to raise our concerns

Electoral RegistrationElectoralRegistration


10/19

19

One of Unlock Democracys core projects; in 2007,Local Works campaigned for the introduction ofthe Sustainable Communities Act - a piece oflegislation that puts people at the heart of reversingcommunity decline and promoting sustainability.Since then weve campaigned to strengthen it,raise awareness and encourage councils to use it.

In 2011/12 we successfully campaigned for thegovernment to make new regulations on the Act,which allow people to participate in it again. Weconvinced government to strengthen the Actrather than weaken it, as per their original plans.

We also successfully campaigned for governmentto agree a proposal under the Act to give townand parish councils greater powers over majorplanning applications.

Laying the foundations

Interviewed citizens, councillors and ofcers inapproximately 20 towns and cities across thecountry who have already used the Act to nd outwhat has already been done well at Local Authoritylevel, and published this research in August 2012.

Successfully mobilised the support of 1,500 townand parish councils in support of the parish councilplanning proposal.

Getting the regulations

Mobilised over 50 national organisations to putpressure on the government

Over 150 MPs wrote to the minister, 30+backbenchers and shadow ministers askedparliamentary questions, and triggered aparliamentary debate

Met with ministers and civil servants on eightoccasions to discuss the detail of the regulations

Local Works


11/19

21

Unlock Democracy is recognised as a leading expertin the eld of democracy and parliamentary reform.

A primary goal of all our campaigns is to changeand implement legislation to strengthen democracyin the UK. We do this by building support for ourbroad policy agenda in parliament.

We work with individual MPs, host public meetings inparliament, and give evidence to select committeesand government consultations.

Unlock Democracy gave evidence to the followingselect committees in 2011/12:

Political and Constitutional Reform Committee- inquiry into the need for a constitutionalconvention in the UK.

House of Lords Constitution Committee -inquiry into the Accountability of Civil Servants.

Justice Committee - post-legislative scrutinyof the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Political and Constitutional Reform Committee- inquiry into the governments proposals forthe recall of MPs

Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform -pre-legislative scrutiny of the Draft House ofLords Reform Bill.

Parliamentary Work

Unlock Democracy submitted evidence to the followinggovernment consultations:

Commission on a Bill of Rights -Do we need a UK Bill of Rights?

Home Ofce - consultation on Article 8 of theEuropean Convention on Human Rights -the right to respect for private and family life

Scottish Government -Your Scotland, Your Referendum

Cabinet Ofce -Proposals for a Statutory Register of Lobbyists

Cabinet Ofce -White Paper on Individual Elector Registration

Public meetings in parliament

Unlock Democracy has held two very well attended andlively public meetings in Westminster in the last year.

July 2012 - Why the UK needs a ConstitutionalConvention with Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones

May 2012 - Elect the Lords - the next step withGraham Allen MP, Laura Sandys MP, Martin VickersMP and Lord Tyler


12/19

23

Democracy Matters

Democracy Matters brings together a wide range ofcivil society and community groups to campaign to

get more support for learning how to campaign andact in politics, so that anyone who wants to changethings can learn how the system works, who toinuence and how to campaign effectively.

www.democracymatters.info

Bill of Rights

We are a member of an NGO network organised bythe British Institute of Human Rights. The networkcoordinates joint responses to human rights issues.

Alliance for

LOBBYINGTRANSPARENCY

ALT

Coalition WorkUnlock Democracy is committed to building constructiverelationships with organisations who share our goals.To this aim, we play a leading role in the fol lowing coalitions:

Counting Women in

We are one of the founding membersof a new coalition set up by veleading campaigning organisations indemocracy and womens rights. Thecampaign is aiming for 50/50 genderrepresentation at all levels of national,local and devolved government.

www.countingwomenin.org

Alliance for LobbyingTransparency

An alliance of civil society groups who areconcerned about the growing inuence oflobbying on decision-making in the UK. Itwas launched in 2008, to coincide with aParliamentary inquiry into lobbying.

www.lobbyingtransparency.org

Local Works Coalition

We are a founding member of theLocal Works Coalition that supports theSustainable Communities Act.

www.localworks.org


13/19

25

Back in 2008, we developed the rst UK Vote Match web basedapp to encourage participation in the 2008 London Mayoral andassembly elections. Vote Match is a short, online quiz which asksusers about their political views. These are matched to the policiesof the candidates.

Since its launch, over 2 million people have used Vote Match. 2011/12has been one of our busiest years, with more separate projects thanever due to our expansion into student union elections. All of our VoteMatch projects are now generating revenue for Unlock Democracy.This puts us in a stronger position with our goal to make Vote Matcha self-nancing project with a dedicated member of staff.

Projects 2011/12

In Nov 2011, we ran a Vote Match for the snap Spanish GeneralElection with MSN as our media sponsor.

In Jan 2012, we launched the rst ever US Vote Match for theRepublican Primary elections with the Telegraph Media Group.In late 2012 we will be producing a US presidential version withthe Telegraph Media Group

In spring 2012 we ran Vote Matches for 13 different StudentsUnions for council, sabbatical ofcer and NUS delegateelections. 50% of these Students Unions had record turnout

In May 2012, we ran Vote Match for the London Mayoralversion, bringing on board a new sponsor Confused.com

Vote Match


14/19

27

Unlock Democracys strength is itsmembership. We started with 3,000

members in 2007, since then we havegrown to an 8,000 strong membership.

As our membership levels increase, sohave the competitiveness of our internalelections and attendance at our AGMs -signs of a healthy, growing democraticorganisation.

This year we have focused on growingour membership and developing practicalsupport for activists. We have made it fareasier for members and supporters todonate and join online.

Membership

In the last 12 months, 1,800 people havetaken up free membership offers to the LabourCampaign for Electoral Reform, the Campaignfor the English Regions, Take Back Parliament,

Yes to Fairer Votes activists, as well as our ownsupporters. A high proportion of people who takeup our free membership offer go on to contributeto our campaigns and renew their membership,making this a useful way to expand our base andraise income.

One of our key priorities is converting members tosubscribing by direct debit. Doing so decreasesour running costs signicantly and enables us tofocus on expansion and campaigning. If you havenot yet taken up a direct debit, please do so as ithelps us enormously.


15/19

29

2011/12 saw a radical overhaul of the work we do tobuild local activism and groups. Weve had our busiestyear for local activism since we launched in 2007. Weset out to meaningfully engage with activists on alocal level. By helping groups formed under the YesCampaign to continue as democracy groups, wevebuilt a nationwide activist base.

Building online support

In September 2012 we launched our activismpages - an online toolkit of resources andguides for local groups.

Promoted over 50 local events on ourwebsite, our mailing lists and social media.

Local Activism and Groups

Supporting local activism

Carried out extensive research into local groupand activism experiences in the Yes Campaign -published report in September 2012

Visited groups in Leicester, Cambridge, Dorset,Manchester, Edinburgh, Oxford, Hastings,Birmingham, Shefeld and Harrogate

Successfully co-hosted public meetings on OpenUp Lobbying in Birmingham, Shefeld, Manchester,Leicester and Edinburgh

May 2012 - helped set up London for Democracywith 70 people attending the rst meeting

September 2012 - launched our Public MeetingProgramme to co-host public meetings with localgroups that complement our campaign strategy.

October 2012 - co-hosting our rst grassrootsactivist conference with the Electoral Reform Society

Weve been proud to be able to provide bespokesupport for all local groups through full timestaff support and building a team of volunteersto directly work on local activism. Our onlinesupport through the redesigned website hasvastly improved.


16/19

31

Unlock Democracy benets from volunteers who play a vital rolein helping us achieve our goals. Much of our work wouldnt bepossible without their help and support. Our goal is to createvoluntary roles that enable people to contribute meaningfully toour campaigns and research.

This year we have successfully increased our number of volunteersand launched our remote volunteers scheme - enabling people tosupport our work from home.

We would like to thank the following volunteers for all their helpthis year:

Volunteers

And thank you to ourvolunteer photographers

Anthony De Sigley

Anthony Nicolas Daniell

and Selina Mayer

Ai YamauchiAndy Soar

Anna Fawdry

Annette Winfunke

Claire Bradnam

David Newsome

Devon-Jane Airey

Farhana Patel

George Hathaway

Georgia Arlott

Georgina Smerald

Graham Marsden

Hannah Gordon

Jack MaizelsJames Goddard

James Huckle

Joe Wright

John Franglen

Katarzyna Marczak

Katherine Harrison

Kiran-Lee Allen

Linda Westlye

Maria Smith

Matt Rudge

Michelle Springer

Miklos Szilard

Nicholas BennetPeter Pieh

Rachel Ade

Rimple Rana

Ruby Szarowicz

Stuart Connick

Zoe Stavri


17/19

33

Grants

In the 2011/2012 nancial year we gratefully received almost 94,000in grant income. So far in this nancial year we have been awardedgrants totalling over 130,000. For their kind support of our work,we thank the City Bridge Trust, the Esmee Fairburn Foundation, theEUs Grundtvig programme, the James Madison Trust, the JosephRowntree Charitable Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust andthe Poverty and Environment Trust.

Legacies

We have been generously supported by members leaving us a legacyin their will. In the last nancial year, we received 50,000 in legaciesand 40,000 so far this nancial year. We are particularly grateful toDr Annette Rawson OBE and Norman Alfred Arnold for their support.If you would like more information about legacies please contact theofce.

Expenditure

In the nancial year 2011/2012 we spent over 480,000. The fullaudited accounts will be available from November 2012. Ouraccounts are audited by Chantrey Vellacott.

We extend our heartfelt thanks for this years vital contributions to ourght for a fairer democracy. Whether the donation is 10 or 10,000,we are extremely grateful for all our support.

Finance

Unlock Democracy has been generously supported in the last year bydonations from our members and grants from trusts which enable us tocontinue our ambitious campaigns.

Our largest single type of income is individual contributions. We raisedjust under 40% of our income in this way in the 2011/2012 nancialyear. Our income also comes from grants (25%), commercial income,including Rodell Properties Ltd (24%) and l egacies (11%).

Legacies

Commercial income

Grants

Individual contributions

Income from the 1st April 2011 to the 31st March 2012


18/19

35

The debate about where power lies and whatgovernment may and may not do in our name, hasrarely been more urgent.

The next year is going to see the debate aboutthe future of the United Kingdom hot up as wemove closer to the 2014 referendum on Scottishindependence. It wont only be Scotlands place inthe union that is debated, it will also focus mindson England and the need to decentralise power.There are growing calls for a new UK constitutionalsettlement, and in particular the setting up of aConstitutional Convention to thrash this out.

Afterword:

the upcoming agenda

Decisions are increasingly being made at aEuropean and even global level, or by multinationalcorporations that have no democraticaccountability and our unwritten constitution is

simply not t for purpose. We need to win theargument for a new model of political participationthat moves beyond electing representatives everyfew years and towards a more active and engagedform of citizenship.

In short, we have a big task ahead. For us tosucceed, you have a crucial role to play. We needto grow in terms of resources, inuence, membersand activism over the next few years. The lessonsof the past two years are that we cannot rely onothers to do it for us.


19/19

About Unlock DemocracyUnlock Democracy is the UKs leading campaign for democratic reform.Established in 2007 following the merger of Charter 88 and the New PoliticsNetwork, we argue and campaign for a vibrant, inclusive democracy thatputs power in the hands of the people.

This report covers the period from September 2011 to September 2012.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial 2.0 license. To view a copy of this license,visit www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk

This annual report is published by Unlock Democracy, a not for protcompany limited by guarantee, number 2440889

Unlock Democracy37 Grays Inn Rd,LondonWC1X 8PQ

Tel: 020 7278 4443 | Web: www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk Email: [email protected]

UnlockDemocracy

unlock democracy's annual report 2011-2012

Documents