The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption was established on the 7th November 2011 to
“bring together interested Members of the House of Commons and House of Lords to raise awareness of the impact of international corruption and to enhance and strengthen UK anti-corruption policies and mechanisms including parliamentary scrutiny.”
The APPG is a cross party group of MPs and peers from the British Parliament who have come together to analyse and strengthen the UK’s anti-corruption policies. The APPG does this by:
- Holding regular meetings and briefings with high profile speakers
- Analysing the UK’s anti-corruption policies and mechanisms
- Engaging with a range of stakeholders and awareness raising
- Benchmarking and sharing best practice
- Calling on ministers to help effect change
- Acting as a UK presence on the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption
Policy advice is provided by members of the Bond Anti-Corruption Group.
The APPG is funded by the following groups (total donations received to date are noted in brackets):
- Global Witness (£5,000)
- Tearfund* (£4,000)
- Transparency International UK (£2,000)
- Christian Aid (£4,000)
*In addition, between November 2011 and May 2013, Tearfund assisted the group by providing secretariat support drawn from its existing staff.
This money is used to employ a part-time Coordinator for the group and provides a small budget for costs such as holding events or printing reports. The contributing groups decided to fund the APPG collectively to avoid undue influence from one particular agency. As APPGs are not able to employ people directly or establish their own bank account, donations are held by Bond (who act as an umbrella body) with whom the Coordinator has a consultancy contract. The funding agencies believe this to be the best available mechanism at present. However, if in the future parliamentary rules change to allow APPGs to employ staff directly and set up bank accounts (a change the group strongly favours) the APPG would do so.
The Coordinator is accountable to the APPG Officers and is regularly line managed by the Co-Chair Anas Sarwar MP. Due to changes in Parliamentary rules the coordinator no longer holds a parliamentary pass and is currently looking for a permanent desk space outside of Parliament.