Former civil servants ‘not sticking to lobbying bans’

WHITEHALL departments have failed to stop a single civil servant from taking a job in the private sector over the past two years.

The departments are also failing to ensure that former civil servants are sticking to lobbying bans after they join the private sector, the public spending watchdog has found.

The rules are meant to prevent civil servants from taking sensitive government information, contacts, or knowledge to their new employer, but the report said the system is not being applied consistently across Whitehall.

The National Audit Office examined 170 instances of civil servants moving to the private sector by departments in the two years to January 2017 below the level which have to be approved by Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, a Whitehall watchdog which vets jobs for ex-mandarins.

It found that Whitehall departments failed to stop a single civil servant from taking a job in the private sector over the past two years. There was confusion about whether they could take action with the rules stating that departments cannot reject applications, but the Cabinet office saying that they can. Only one department out of eight surveyed “routinely” told prospective employers of the lobbying restrictions imposed on ex-civil servants or ministers, the NAO said.

It found that most believed “the onus to be on former civil servants” to comply with any conditions placed on them, such as not to lobby former colleagues.

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, said: “The Government has a system that doesn’t work, has no teeth and isn’t even being properly implemented. If the watchdog does not bark, it is time to put it down.”