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Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers

Document Cited authorities 2 Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorMichael Smyth/Patricia Barratt/Fraser Campbell
Pages319-321

Appendix 8


Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers

It is in the public interest that former Ministers with experience in Government should be able to move into business or into other areas of public life, and to be able to start a new career or resume a former one. It is equally important that when a former Minister takes up a particular appointment or employment, there should be no cause for any suspicion of impropriety.

The Rules

‘On leaving office, Ministers will be prohibited from lobbying Government for two years. They must also seek advice from the independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments about any appointments or employment they wish to take up within two years of leaving office. Former Ministers must abide by the advice of the Committee.’
[Ministerial Code, section 7.25]

1. The business appointment rules for former Ministers seek to counter suspicion that:
a. the decisions and statements of a serving Minister might be influenced by the hope or expectation of future employment with a particular firm or organisation; or

b. an employer could make improper use of official information to which a former Minister has had access; or

c. there may be cause for concern about the appointment in some other particular respect.

Applications by Former Ministers
2. The application form, which can be accessed at: http://acoba.independent. gov.uk/media/21233/application-former-ministers.rtf will in most cases provide the Advisory Committee with the information it requires in order to give its advice. The Committee will need to consider details of the proposed appointment or employment, which includes any proposal to

320 The Law of Political Donations

undertake consultancy work. If necessary, the Committee will seek, in confidence, additional information from senior officials of a former Minister’s Department(s) about any contact with the prospective employer or its competitors and the nature of any contractual, regulatory or other relationships with them. The Committee will also, if relevant to the proposed appointment or employment, take account of any other role that the former Minister may have been (or still be) carrying out on behalf of the Government. With the former Minister’s permission, the Committee may wish to contact the proposed new employer for clarification of the proposed appointment or employment and notification of the conditions that will apply to it.
3. The Advisory...

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