Public Affairs: The Week in Lobbying

Betfair is the world's biggest online betting community, having pioneered the betting exchange in 2000.

The Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee has said it will hold an inquiry into lobbying, following last week's expose of Bell Pottinger in The Independent. Committee chairman Graham Allen said: 'There is a lot of concern about lobbying operations. We want to examine the problem and come up with proposals that hopefully will give us the way forward.'

Sixty-two per cent of MPs agree that 'the democratic process would be helped by a statutory register of those engaged in public affairs,' according to new research by Populus. The polling firm interviewed 115 MPs online or by self-completed postal questionnaire between 10 November and 5 December 2011. Meanwhile, a poll of 150 MPs by ComRes in October found 64 per cent backed a statutory register, against 20 per cent who opposed its introduction.