DIARIES of MSPs and ministers should be open and available for public scrutiny at any time but a register of lobbyists, as proposed by the Scottish Parliament, is unworkable, according to an influential pressure group.

The Scottish Council Development and Industry (SCDI) has told the parliament's standards committee that the work of those being lobbied, the MSPs, rather than the lobbyists themselves should be scrutinised.

MSPs across the parties have suggested setting up a registration scheme to prevent abuse of the parliamentary system and to ensure lobbying is above board and transparent.

Their action was partly prompted by the Lobbygate affair when one company, Beattie Media, some of whose employees had close personal connections to senior Labour politicians, boasted of how it could provide clients with easy access. Ministers were later cleared of wrongdoing.

The standards committee today begins assessing evidence to determine how best to regulate lobbyists.

The SCDI, which is nearing its 70th anniversary, is the longest established and most prominent body representing a cross section of Scottish economic and national interests from industry to churches to trade unions.

Its stance will surprise MSPs with its flat rejection of the notion that commercial lobbying needs a formal register. Instead, it takes the view that the focus should be on the behaviour of MSPs themselves.

A formal register, it believes, would risk creating a perceived elite group of lobbyists offering preferential access to MSPs and discourage those least able to lobby the parliament who would face additional administration through the bureaucracy of registration or a code of conduct.

In its submission to the parliament, the SCDI says there is a risk registration ''would actually cause the problem it was intended to deal with''.

It argues: ''The key point should be to ensure that MSPs are equally accessible to all, from the largest multinational to the smallest community group, and are seen to be so.''

The SCDI wants a system which prevents any organisation From Page 1

guaranteeing preferential access to MSPs. ''The focus should therefore be on MSPs' conduct and responsibilities, rather than the very large number of organisations in contact with them, whether on a one-off or continuing basis.

''Put simply, it would be easier to regulate, and expose to public scrutiny, the diaries and workings of 129 MSPs than to attempt to regulate the activities of the many hundreds of commercial and non-commercial lobbyists. In an area where definitions of lobbying activity cannot be agreed, it would be more realistic to scrutinise the lobbied than the many forms of lobbyist.''

It adds: ''Section seven of the code of conduct for MSPs already exists to govern their contacts with lobbyists. This should be strengthened to include public access to MSP and ministerial diaries in the parliamentary library and on the parliament's website.''

The SCDI says MSPs are public servants who must expect to have their activities scrutinised by the public. ''Commercial lobbyists, on the other hand, are under no ethical obligation but are generally content to work within industry-generated guidelines on standards of behaviour.''

For any scheme to be effective, there should be sanctions against offending MSPs, the SCDI states. But it has no view of what these sanctions should be beyond naming and shaming MSPs and suspending them for breaching their code of conduct.

One sanction mooted by the standards committee is a fine of up to (pounds) 5000 or even a prison sentence for MSPs who break anti-sleaze rules.

Tricia Marwick, an SNP member of the committee, says it intends to have the toughest code of conduct of any parliament in the world.

Mike Rumbles, the Liberal Democrat convener of the committee, said: ''Openness and transparency are our watchwords. We want to take on those who practise the dark art of spin and make sure there is no threat to the reputation of the Scottish parliament which must remain whiter than white.''