Sponsorship by the Private Sector
The Sixth Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (chaired by Lord Neill) was published in January 2000. It made a number of recommendations about, amongst other things, the sponsorship of Government activities by private sector companies. In the Government's response to the Sixth Report, published on 26 July 2000 (Cm 4817), the Government pointed out that many Government information campaigns are sponsored by the private sector and are of importance in saving lives in the home or on the roads. Similarly, partnerships with private sector sponsors can be a valuable means of promoting British industry abroad.
Nevertheless, the Government accepted that its advice to Ministers and officials could be strengthened, and published new guidelines including the following key principles.
- Companies' support should add significant benefit to an exisiting Government message or campaign.
- There should be no overt commercial advantage to the sponsor in terms of direct sale of products or promotion of brands.
- The project should not be 100% dependent on sponsorship suport for its funding.
- Sponsorship should be sought in an open and even-handed manner from businesses competing in a given field. A chosen sponsor's competitors should not be given grounds to complain that they were not given a fair chance.
- Sponsorship should be of activities and events, and not linked to individual Ministers or officials, lest those individuals appear to be placed under an obligation to the sponsor. There must be no suggestion that sponsors are being given privileged access to Ministers in return for the sponsorship.
- Department must not, and must not appear to, endorse the sponsoring company or its products.
- Sponsors must not be involved in, or seeking, a significant commercial relationship with departments, nor may they be affected by the department's role in making or enforcing legislation.
- Sponsorship of individual amounts of more than £5000 must be disclosed in the department's annual report. For this purpose, the value of in kind sponsorship should be measured by ascertaining what it would have cost the department to pay for the support that was provided, not what it cost the sponsor.