Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Rejected
Paragraph: 35
The Government should implement the CSPL’s recommendation to extend the scope of the Business Appointment...
Recommendation
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 a measure should be applied to Ministers as well as SpAds and Officials at SCS3 and SCS4 grades. Moreover, the implications of this should be made more prominent to prospective hires prior to commencement.
Government response summary AI-generated
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.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
35
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government · verbatim extract
Rejected
The Government agrees that the roles individuals undertake in government are highly relevant to the consideration of what people should be allowed to do once they leave those roles. However, the Government considers that taking the recommended approach to apply automatic and lengthy bans is overly broad, and could lead to a system where consideration is determined by contingent factors, rather than one based on a thorough analysis of the inherent risks. It could also act as a fetter on porosity between the public and private sectors and weaken some of the aims of the Declaration on Government Reform. In practice, the system being put forward by the Government to include more of the requirements about restrictions on future employment in contracts may come to similar conclusions as those recommended above, but these will be undertaken on the basis of the contractual clauses. 1.2 The Length and Scope of the Lobbying Ban Committee on Standards in Public Life,
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