The report is a conservative estimate of the total spend because does not include the huge amounts spent by councils and other public sector bodies on publicity, a certain proportion of which goes on lobbying. Instead, it focuses on the amounts spent hiring external lobbying and public affairs support:
Public sector organisations spent nearly 4.9 million on hiring political consultancies. More than twice the amount found in earlier research by the Conservative Party.
77 public sector organisations were found to be spending on political consultancies, the biggest spender being Scottish Enterprise, which spent over 1 million.
14 consultancies received more than 100,000 in payments from public sector organisations, the largest being Stratagem, which received 876,121.
3 trade associations have a combined taxpayer funded income of more than 23 million (Local Government Association, Association of Police Authorities and NHS Confederation).
The report also looks at the amount of taxpayers' money given by public sector organisations (including the EU) to nominally independent groups, whose primary focus is campaigning for policy change, including political campaigns, lobby groups, think tanks and charities:
Nearly 1.8 million is spent on health policy campaigns, including 515,000 paid to Alcohol Concern, 191,000 paid to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and 130,000 paid to the Family Planning Association.
Environmental policy campaigns received over 6.7 million, including funding for the Sustainable Development Commission, Friends of the Earth, the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences and numerous other groups.
Using Freedom of Information requests to key quangos and government departments, the report found 1.6 million in taxpayer funding for major think tanks Yahoo: against terrorism Extent of Government Funded Lobbying Revealed government
Google: government Extent of Government Funded Lobbying Revealed against terrorism

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