Anti-sleaze chief calls for 'urgent reform' of Whitehall second job rules

An anti-sleaze chief has called for “immediate” reform of rules governing civil servants’ second jobs, warning there not do not seem to be “any boundaries at all” between Whitehall and the private sector.

Lord Pickles, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) which vets jobs that ministers and mandarins accept after leaving Government, declared there were “anomalies which are simply not covered by an ethics regime and they should be”.

He raised the alarm on Thursday that the example of Bill Crothers, who received Cabinet Office approval to work for scandal-hit lender Greensill while still a senior civil servant, was not an “isolated” case.

Disclosing that “my eyebrows did raise the full quarter inch” when he heard about former Whitehall procurement chief Mr Crothers’ dual roles, he said: “I look forward to receiving a full explanation in due course.”

Appearing before MPs on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, the former Tory cabinet minister said he hoped there was a record of the decision to approve Mr Crothers’ secondary job and that it “wasn’t just on the say-so of an individual”.

He said “immediate address” was required to tackle loopholes in the rules that oblige former frontbenchers and top officials to apply to his committee before taking on roles after leaving office.

The Prime Minister signalled that he believed the system around civil servants’ second jobs was in crisis and said he “thoroughly” agreed with Lord Pickles’ verdict.

Speaking during a visit to Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth, Boris Johnson stressed the importance of the independent inquiry led by lawyer Nigel Boardman establishing the facts around the lobbying row that has erupted in Westminster.

“We need to understand completely what's gone on here,” the Prime Minister said.

On Thursday night Lord Pickles also released a judgement that Mr Crothers had breached his watchdog’s rules after failing to seek its advice on accepting an unpaid trustee role at the Chartered Institute for Procurement & Supply (CIPS) after leaving Whitehall.

Mr Crothers had wrongly believed that an application to Acoba was not required in relation to not-for-profit organisations like CIPS and has since apologised to the watchdog, Lord Pickles noted in correspondence.

The peer informed Michael Gove, the cabinet office minister, of the breach in 2016. It is up to Mr Gove to decide what action to take.

The latest register of ministerial interests, which should have been published at the end of last year, will be published within days, it is understood.

It will coincide with the appointment of a new independent advisor to the Prime Minister on ministerial standards.

The post has been empty for more than four months since Sir Alex Allan, the previous incumbent, quit in the wake of Mr Johnson’s handling of an inquiry into bullying allegations against Home Secretary Priti Patel.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said the Government was still committed to publishing the register of ministerial interests twice a year.