5 min read
There is a familiar temptation in public affairs: find the most senior person in the room and aim everything at them.
In energy, that usually means the minister or perhaps the special adviser.
It’s understandable. Major energy projects depend on government choices. So, it’s natural to assume influence runs in a straight line: company to minister, briefing to decision, problem to solution.
Unfortunately, politics is rarely that tidy. If it were, there would be far fewer select committees and a great deal less coffee-drinking.
The route is rarely a straight line
In the energy industry, influence often runs through the people closest to the place: local MPs, MSPs, council leaders and regional agencies.
Far from being decorative stakeholders they are often the route by which issues become visible and politically urgent.
That is the third principle in Aspect’s Eight Principles for engaging successfully with policymakers: work through political routes, not around them.
It sounds obvious but it’s frequently ignored.
A project may feel ‘national’ to the company building it but to local representatives it is something much more immediate: a port, a road, new jobs, a view or just someone at a surgery asking what on earth is going on.
Ignore that layer and you miss part of how political attention actually works.
One Scottish MP we interviewed put it bluntly: “Engage through the local representative... a Minister will find it very hard to say no.”
When a constituency MP, MSP or council leader says, “This matters locally, these jobs are real, these concerns are understood, and this project needs attention,” the message lands differently. It becomes about local concerns rather than just corporate interests.
The two-page test
The fourth principle follows closely: be concise, specific and targeted.
Once you have found the right route, do not block it with a 47-page PDF and a covering email beginning “As you will be aware”.
They may not be aware. Or they may be aware in the way most of us are aware we should fill in our tax return: vaguely, guiltily, and hoping someone else will deal with it.
Policymakers have limited time. Ministers are often briefed only minutes before meetings. MPs and MSPs are juggling everything from debates and committees to constituency work and media inquiries. Officials are trying to turn complex evidence into advice that can survive legal, financial, political and delivery scrutiny.
In that environment, length and detail are not the same as being serious and useful.
Another Scottish MP gave us the line every organisation should keep above the desk: “I want a two-page briefing with sensible asks that I can use in debates.”
There is a world of wisdom in that sentence.
A useful briefing is simply a bridge between what you know and what the policymaker needs to do next.
Why does this matter? Why now? Why here? What is the decision or pressure point? What is the specific ask? What happens if nothing changes? Who is affected? What can the policymaker usefully say or do?
This is particularly important for senior energy leaders. The sector often deals in necessary complexity. The problem is that complexity can become a comfort blanket.
Make it usable
A local MSP does not need the same briefing as a DESNZ official. Neither does a council leader need the same message as a Treasury adviser.
A good test is whether your point could be explained clearly after reading one page in the back of a taxi.
If not, then it probably needs more work.
The aim is not to make the policymaker admire how much you know. It is to help them understand what matters and act with confidence.
This is where principles three and four belong together. Work through the routes that politics actually uses. Then give those people something they can actually use.
So, before your next ministerial meeting, ask yourself two questions.
First: who is the messenger this issue really needs?
Second: could they explain our point clearly after skimming one page in the back of that taxi?
If the answer to either is no, the strategy may need another look.
In politics, as in energy, transmission matters. The power is only useful if it reaches the right place.