Transparency International UK published a report expressing concern about the behavior of some foreign lobbyists representing corrupt and repressive regimes in Britain.

The organization highlighted Azerbaijani, Russian and Bahraini lobbyists.

According to the report, the activity of the Azerbaijani lobbyists in the parliament has become especially notorious.

The organization emphasized Azerbaijan's involvement in the recent corruption scandal in the PACE, adding that one of the UK delegates, Robert Walter, violated the Council of Europe's code of conduct. Another PACE delegate Mike Hancock,  who allegedly defended the integrity of Azerbaijan’s 2008 and 2010 elections in the face of criticism from the OSCE international observation missions,  refused to testify in the corruption case, referring to the health problems.

However, it is known that Hancock’s headquarters received over 11 thousand pounds from the Azerbaijani lobbying organization.

“Our analysis of official records and open source material has found that a total of 71 parliamentarians and their staff have been on 111 known visits to the country between 2007 and 2017,” the report said adding: “Based on available information, we estimate that these visits – paid for by TEAS and state institutions in Azerbaijan – cost a minimum of £333,000. Although the nature of many of these visits are described in parliamentarians’ registers of interest over a quarter were for unspecified purposes or as a ‘guest’ of Azerbaijan state institutions. It is unclear from the disclosures how these visits relate to their parliamentary duties.”

The report details all payments to British parliamentarians.