Loophole that helps ministers’ aides to pick up cushy jobs
DOZENS of special advisers to the country’s top politicians have been allowed to waltz into lucrative jobs after the Government exempted them from independent checks.
Officials quietly watered down the rules before the last General Election, paving the way for aides to take their experience and contacts into the private sector.
The ease with which the special advisers, or Spads, move from Whitehall to business has been labelled a ‘revolving door’.
They were previously required to apply to the appointments watchdog Acoba, which examines cases for conflicts of interest and can impose restrictions.
As confidantes to the country’s top politicians, the Spads are often privy to an array of top secret information and possess contact books that are hugely
‘They are valuable commodities’
attractive to private companies. The loophole in the screening process was exposed as it emerged that Theresa May’s new chief of staff broke rules by failing to declare a job with an influential lobbying firm.
Fiona Hill should have informed Whitehall officials when she took up a role with Lexington Communications after losing her job advising Mrs May in 2014.
But the trusted PR, who was recently re-hired by the new Prime Minister, failed to comply with the already lax regime that is designed to stop officials trading on insider information.
Experts described the decision to exclude Whitehall’s legions of special advisers from the screening process imposed on other senior civil servants and minis- ters as ‘worrying’. It also follows intense criticism of David Cameron, who promised to put an end to cronyism and lobbying in 2010, after his plans to lavish gongs on political allies were revealed this week.
A change in rules introduced in July 2014 exempted all but the highest-paid aides – on more than around £95,000 a year – from being scrutinised by Acoba’s panel. The rules are not contained in law and are only advisory. They require Spads simply to apply to the permanent secretary of the department they have just left, informing them of any job they take within two years of leaving. The results are tucked away on departmental websites rather than appearing in Acoba’s log. Official documents show that scores of influential aides have taken advantage of the procedure to join the private sector.
Tamasin Cave, of Spin Watch, which campaigns against lobbying by former ministers, said: ‘These aren’t insignificant figures. They are valuable commodities and to exempt them seems to go against what David Cameron said in terms of clamping down on lobbying. It sounds like a lot of hot air.’
‘The contempt she [Hill] has shown for the rules is supportive of a culture in Westminster and Whitehall that sees trading insider knowledge as routine.’
Miss Hill, the Prime Minister’s campaign director during her Tory leadership bid, failed to comply with the less stringent conflict checks.
She lost her £74,000-a-year
‘Regulator is toothless’
job as special adviser during Mrs May’s first four years in the Home Office in June 2014. She then worked for the Centre for Social Justice think tank, where she wrote a report on modern slavery. She only started work at Lexington after the election.
A Whitehall source told The Times Miss Hill did not deliberately evade the rules and blamed the ‘passage of time’ since leaving the Home Office.
In April Baroness Browning, who chairs Acoba, told MPs her committee was worried about the trend for ministers to seek work in the sectors they had responsibility for.
A Mail investigation earlier this year revealed that twothirds of ministers and officials had taken a private job in the same sector after leaving office. This led to accusations that Acoba – the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments – is toothless. There is no suggestion rules were broken.
The body has not blocked a single job in 40 years and is often powerless to enforce its recommendations, usually passing weak advice to the Prime Minister.
The Cabinet Office said: ‘The changes in 2014 were designed to take into account that special advisers are recruited as temporary civil servants.’