Lobbying ‘warning’ for Whitehall after Hammond case
CIVIL servants are being ordered to be wary of lobbying attempts by former ministers, in the wake of Lord Hammond’s approach to the Treasury on behalf of a paying client.
A letter being drafted at the Cabinet Office will warn officials across Whitehall to be “conscious of the restrictions” that are meant to bind senior government figures after they leave their posts.
The warning comes after the Government’s rebuke of Lord Hammond, the former Chancellor, after a watchdog accused him of breaching a standard two-year ban on ministers courting officials and ministers on behalf of clients.
Downing Street also feared that the Government was damaged over the revelation of David Cameron’s extensive lobbying of former colleagues on behalf of Greensill, the finance firm.
However, the former prime minister’s lobbying is not thought to have broken any rules, as it took place more than two years after he left office.
The Cabinet Office’s plan to issue a warning to civil servants over the issue was confirmed in a note sent by Lord True, a Cabinet Office minister, to Lord Pickles, whose Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) monitors jobs taken up by ministers and officials leaving government.
“We will take steps to highlight to departments that in their communications they should be conscious of the restrictions on direct engagement with those subject to business appointment conditions,” Lord True said.
The minister’s letter confirmed that the Government agreed with Lord Pickles’s conclusion that they believe that Lord Hammond had breached the “letter and spirit of the rules” governing ministers’ post-Whitehall roles when he contacted Charles Roxburgh, the Treasury’s second most senior civil servant, last year on behalf of OakNorth, in an approach first revealed by The Sunday Telegraph in August.
In an email to Mr Roxburgh on Friday July 24 2020, the former chancellor said that the bank wanted to offer the Government a “toolkit” it had developed to assess potential borrowers.
Lord Hammond insists that no rules were broken because OakNorth was offering a product “free of charge”.
However, Treasury officials do not recall OakNorth making clear that the product would be either free or subject to a charge.
While there was no suggestion of wrongdoing by Mr Roxburgh, the decision to write to officials about their response to such contact suggests that civil servants may be expected to rebuff similar approaches in future.
The case highlighted the toothlessness of the current system for policing the work carried out by ministers after they leave office.
The system relies on Acoba providing advice to those departing government, without any sanctions available to be used against those who flout the rules.
Angela Rayner, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has said that Labour would tighten up the current rules to “close the revolving door”.
No action has been taken against Mr Hammond.