IT is time for a clampdown on lobbying abuses, the government’s ethics adviser said today.

In a report widely welcomed by campaigners, the Ethics and Integrity Commission (EIC) recommended a tenfold increase in amount rule-breaking lobbyists are fined, to £75,000.

The EIC also slammed the system for ensuring transparency by lobbyists as “wholly inadequate.”

The government should urgently create a register of all lobbying activity to replace the current regime, which does not require in-house lobbyists employed by tech giants, arms monopolies and foreign companies to detail their interactions with ministers, the commission said.

Unlock Democracy chief executive Tom Brake backed the report, saying: “The EIC is right — Britain’s lobbying rules are not fit for purpose.

“A single, searchable database bringing together government and lobbyists’ disclosures would be a big win for transparency.

“Instead of today’s fragmented picture, the public would have a clear view of who is lobbying government, on whose behalf and about what.”

Sue Hawley of Spotlight on Corruption said: “The new Ethics and Integrity Commission has shown real ambition in pushing for a comprehensive transparency register that will show who is meeting the government and why.

“It is critical that the new Burnham government adopts these recommendations in full, including through legislation at the next King’s Speech.

“In the meantime, however, the government should crack on with quickly implementing the measures that do not need legislation, including ensuring transparency releases are made monthly, as well as including meetings with special advisers and informal communications in these releases.”

Duncan Hames of Transparency International UK added: “For too long, lobbying and the revolving door between government and industry have operated in the shadows, and that secrecy has corroded our trust in politics.

“If other countries can disclose who’s lobbying, when and why as a matter of public record, so can we. The recommendations are there, the question is whether ministers have the will to implement them in full.”

The review also urges the government to improve its transparency data, which it says are difficult to find, published in different formats across dozens of webpages and “sometimes impossible” to reconcile with the register of consultant lobbyists.

It recommends that government transparency releases should include details of exchanges through non-corporate communication channels, including WhatsApp.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer ordered the report in the wake of the scandal over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US, which, among many other issues, raised questions about his work as a lobbyist for oligarchs and big business.