Undercover agents

Parliamentary agency work is a mysterious part of a very niche market.

Jon Robins looks at the law firms involved in this political game

Of all the niche practice areas in the legal profession, there is probably none quite so niche as the five law firms providing Parliamentary agency services.'It would be difficult to think of a profession so little-known and understood as Parliamentary agency, or one concerned with affairs of comparable importance which has so few practitioners,' began a history of the profession published by an academic at the University of Leicester back in the 1970s.

Prior to the publication, the Leicester Mercury, anticipating a scoop, ran an excitable headline: 'Lecturer to expose work of mystery agents.' No doubt the newspaper was disappointed.Alastair Lewis, a Parliamentary agent with City firm Sharpe Pritchard, briefly explains the reason why such work is limited to such a small pool of law firms.

There simply is not enough work for everyone to do, he says.

No new law firms have joined this market within living memory, and the last time a new name was put on the register of agents was five years ago.There are two types of private legislation - those Bills that are personal in nature and those that have public objectives such as the building of roads, tunnels, railways and electricity supplies.

Only 'Roll A' agents, who are listed on a register of Parliamentary agents kept in the private Bills office at the House of Commons, can promote private Bills.

Anyone can join the register on a temporary basis - as 'Roll B' agents - to oppose private legislation as it passes through Parliament, but much of this work falls to the specialists.There was a halcyon time for private legislation work back in the Victorian era, when there was a frantic development of the railway and canal infrastructure, and private acts of Parliament were required to authorise the work.

It has been shrinking since then, and at the start of the 1990s it went into recession when the Transport and Work Act 1992 took over from the private Bill procedure in authorising developments under the Act.

'We've got down to base level,' says Mr Lewis.

'The private Bill work is down to its bare bones.' But he adds that there is still plenty of work outside strictly 'private' legislation, such as lobbying.

Last year, there were only four new private Bills in the Parliamentary session.Alison Gorlov, an agent with Westminster firm Winckworth Sherwood, explains that to become an agent, candidates have to convince the authorities in the House of Commons that they are experienced in Parliamentary work and, in particular, the promotion and opposition ofprivate Bills.

In practice, she says this is done by working closely with a 'Roll A' agent.

She describes this process as a 'good old-fashioned apprenticeship'.Alastair Lewis is promoting a Bill on behalf of all but one of the London boroughs.

Theproposed legislation encompasses a number of issues, most notably a licensing regime for buskers.As the promoter of the Bill, the firm has drafted the legislation and the solicitor appears in front of committees of peers and MPs as an advocate.

If the Bill is opposed by petitions, the firm instructs counsel.

Often these firms are retained to oppose Bills.The progress of the buskers Bill has hit an obstacle as a group of MPs are challenging it on human rights grounds.

It is not the nature of the legislation that infringes the European Convention on Human Rights, Mr Lewis explains; the MPs are objecting because the requirement that all Bills must be certified by a minister as Human Rights Act-compliant does not apply to private Bills.

'It is very frustrating for the clients,' he adds.When private Bills are opposed, they can take years to pass through Parliament.

By way of example, Mr Lewis cites the Bill for the Cardiff Bay Barrage, which he promoted on behalf of the development company.

This took seven years to get through Parliament.Parliamentary agents also act for the government.

The last time Alison Gorlov was instructed in this way was for the legislation overseeing the Channel Tunnel Rail Link connecting the tunnel to St Pancras station in London.

She explains that as the proposals involved plans to crossprivate property, there was a private Bill element and for that the government retained a Parliamentary agent.In that instance, the scale of the legal work was immense.

Sharpe Pritchard was acting for petitioners that included 'almost every local authority' along the line of the route, according to Mr Lewis.

There were almost 1,000 petitions of protest lodged at the House of Commons.

Leading counsel was instructed for most authorities and the promoters instructed two leading counsel and two juniors.Nicholas Brown is an agent at Dyson Bell Martin, the Parliamentary and public affairs department at another Westminster law firm, Bircham & Co, and he was also involved in work on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

He is still acting for clients whose land was taken by compulsory acquisition in the mid-1990s.

His firm was also involved in the drafting of the fox-hunting Bill and 'passports for pets' legislation.He says the agency work naturally leads to other related work.

'We might not get the conveyancing work but we get the Parliamentary work,' Mr Brown says.

For example, Dyson Bell & Martin has a very active lobbying department and it also provides a Parliamentary monitoring service for clients.

'We get the nod a bit earlier and so are onto it a bit earlier than the other firms,' he says.Earlier in the year, Leeds and Manchester-based firm Addleshaw Booth & Co instructed Sharpe Pritchard as Parliamentary agents.

Its client was the owner of a family-run business - called the Baxi Partnership - and he wanted to overrule the hereditary principle determining that the business would be passed on to the next generation.

Instead, he wanted the company to be owned by its employees and that required an act of Parliament.Richard Hayes, a share scheme partner at Addleshaws, says this was the first time he had needed to instruct a Parliamentary agent.

Alastair Lewis drafted the Act and guided its passage through Parliament.

Mr Hayes was impressed.

'Clearly, they know the Parliamentary procedure like the back of their hand,' he says.

The Parliamentary process is a convoluted one, he reckons, and experts are needed to steer them through it.

For Mr Hayes would not be the first to enter the world of Parliamentary agents and admit: 'I knew that we had to have one, but I was not sure of their role.'