Select Committee · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Propriety of governance in light of Greensill

Status: Closed Opened: 11 May 2022 Closed: 9 Oct 2023 13 recommendations 29 conclusions 2 reports

The collapse of Greensill Capital and the subsequent revelations about its relationship with government and Whitehall have raised significant concerns about the propriety of governance in this country. In April 2021, PACAC launched an inquiry into the effectiveness of rules to prevent conflicts of interest and regulation of access by current and former politicians and …

Reports

2 reports

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Fourth Report - Propriety of Governance in Light of Greens…	HC 888	2 Dec 2022	25	Responded
Third Report - Propriety of Governance in Light of Greensil…	HC 59	22 Jul 2021	17	—

Recommendations & Conclusions

4 items

5 Recommendation Fourth Report - Propriety of Governance… Rejected

Putting ACOBA on a statutory basis is not a prerequisite for the Rules to be...

Putting ACOBA on a statutory basis is not a prerequisite for the Rules to be legally enforced and should not delay it being put into operation. Nonetheless, to reflect the importance of its role and to clarify the status of it and the Rules, we recommend that ACOBA should be …

Government response. The Government does not believe that ACOBA should be established in primary legislation, but will allow this reform package to take effect before any further consideration of statutory change, in the next Parliament.

6 Recommendation Fourth Report - Propriety of Governance… Rejected

The Government should implement the CSPL’s recommendation to extend the scope of the Business Appointment...

The Government should implement the CSPL’s recommendation to extend the scope of the Business Appointment Rules to prohibit employment in sectors where the applicant has had “significant and direct” responsibility for policy, regulation or the award of contracts rather than only with firms they have had a relationship with. Such …

Government response. The Government does not believe that the Code, nor any other document, should set out directly indicative examples of sanctions that should apply to particular breaches, with the exception that resignation is expected for Ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament.

21 Recommendation Fourth Report - Propriety of Governance… Rejected

If the introduction of graduated sanctions to the Ministerial Code is to be effective, it...

If the introduction of graduated sanctions to the Ministerial Code is to be effective, it cannot be used as a means to avoid significant sanction for serious breaches. The Government should outline the range of sanctions and indicative examples of breaches to which they might apply. Without this, the suspicion …

Government response. The government does not believe the Ministerial Code should set out directly indicative examples of sanctions that should apply to particular breaches, except that resignation is expected for Ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament, as it's for the Prime Minister to …

23 Conclusion Fourth Report - Propriety of Governance… Rejected

The landscape of standards regulation is a patchwork, with individual watchdogs with different powers, legal...

The landscape of standards regulation is a patchwork, with individual watchdogs with different powers, legal basis, and appointments processes.168 Placing on a statutory basis those that are not already is an opportunity to regularise them to some extent. However, whilst all have responsibility for overseeing standards, 168 See CSPL Upholding …

Government response. The government agrees that where standards bodies are committees that the Chair of the body chairs the Advisory Assessment Panel for the recruitment of their independent members, but does not believe that these appointments require an extra layer of independent …

Oral evidence sessions

9 sessions

Date	Witnesses
12 Jul 2022	The Rt Hon Sir John Major KG CH	View ↗
28 Jun 2022	Darren Tierney · Department for International Trade, Simon Case CVO · Cabinet Office	View ↗
9 Jun 2022	Rt Hon Lord Pickles · Advisory Committee on Business Appointments	View ↗
17 May 2022	Rt Hon Sir Peter Riddell CBE · Cabinet Office	View ↗
15 Mar 2022	Sir Alex Allan · House of Commons, Sir Philip Mawer · House of Commons	View ↗
11 Jan 2022	The Lord Evans of Weardale KCB DL · Committee on Standards in Public Life	View ↗
2 Nov 2021	Nigel Boardman	View ↗
13 Jul 2021	Propriety of governance in light of Greensill	View ↗
8 Jun 2021	Bill Crothers · Cabinet Office, Ian Watmore · Cabinet Office, Sir John Manzoni KCB · Cabinet Office, The Rt Hon Lord Maude of Horsham · Member of the House of Lords	View ↗

Correspondence

7 letters

Date	Direction	Title
25 Jul 2023	To cttee	Letter from Rt Hon Oliver Dowden MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor of th…
25 Jul 2023	From cttee	Letter to Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor of …
23 Jun 2021	To cttee	Letter from Suzanne Heywood on Propriety of governance in light of Greensill, d…
23 Jun 2021	To cttee	Letter from John Manzoni on Propriety of governance in light of Greensill, date…
25 May 2021	—	Correspondence with Simon Case, Cabinet Secretary on propriety and ethics in Go…
26 Apr 2021	To cttee	Letter from Simon Case, Cabinet Secretary on management of outside interests by…
26 Apr 2021	To cttee	Letter from Chair to Simon Case, Cabinet Secretary on Audit of Civil Service du…