Whitehall watchdog laments lack of oversight on private sector roles

The chair of the UK’s advisory committee on post-government appointments said on Thursday there did not appear to be “boundaries at all” between senior civil servants moving into the private sector, as the Greensill lobbying scandal continued to place ministers and officials under intense scrutiny.

Lord Eric Pickles, who oversees the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba), told MPs there was an urgent need for regulatory reform after a series of revelations raised questions over the links between former ministers, senior public officials and the collapsed finance firm Greensill Capital.

Earlier this week the head of the civil service Simon Case ordered all officials to disclose if they held private sector roles while still working in government.

The move came in response to the disclosure that Bill Crothers, the government’s former chief procurement officer, took up a role with Greensill in September 2015 while remaining in the civil service. He left Whitehall in November that year and went on to become a director of Greensill.

Pickles said he was “really unhappy” with the “anomalies” in the current regulatory system for appointments that required “immediate address”.

“Part of the problem we have got is that it has not been clear where the boundaries lay. In fact, I hope this does not seem rude — there does not seem to have been any boundaries at all,” he said.

The Greensill affair has fuelled calls for sweeping reform of the rules governing when former ministers and civil servants can take on private sector jobs.

Former Tory prime minister David Cameron, who was an adviser to Greensill, lobbied chancellor Rishi Sunak and other Treasury ministers last year to try to secure the company access to a Bank of England coronavirus loan scheme.

He admitted to mistakes after texting Sunak, but said he had broken no rules. Crothers, meanwhile, said he secured Cabinet Office approval to work for the company at the same time as being a civil servant.

Pickles said he had been expecting a lobby scandal for “some time” but did not believe it would be at such a senior level. But he defended the role of Acoba, which only employs four people and has been criticised as “toothless regulator”.

“The point of Acoba is to put together conditions and delays to ensure the integrity of government is protected. But there is a misunderstanding, which I find deeply irritating. Acoba is not a watchdog, not a regulator. It has a very limited and defined role,” he said.

He revealed that 34,000 people left the civil service last year, but his committee only ruled on 108 appointments at a senior level.

Although some MPs have called for Acoba to be given statutory powers over appointments for former ministers and officials, Pickles warned this could prove costly given the small numbers of people it may concern.

“What we need to demonstrate is that if you break the rules there are consequences, and there are a number of consequences without going to thermonuclear option . . . there’s perhaps a danger that we spend an enormous sum of money in trying to slay a paper tiger or a paper dragon.”

Pickles added that the “revolving door” between Whitehall and the private sector had created an “entitlement whereby the existing cohort looked after the cohort that just left, in assumption that the cohort coming up would look after them”.

The public administration committee, chaired by Conservative MP William Wragg, announced its own inquiry on Thursday focusing on lobbying in light of the Greensill scandal. Boris Johnson has also announced a government probe into the scandal by Nigel Boardman, a former city lawyer.

The Treasury select committee will conduct its own inquiry into Greensill and the lobbying of Treasury officials by Cameron. The public accounts committee is also expected to hold hearings on Greensill.

Cameron and Sunak will be invited to give public evidence at one of the parliamentary inquiries into lobbying.