Matt Hancock committed ‘minor’ breach of ministerial code over family firm given NHS contract

Matt Hancock committed a "minor" breach of the ministerial code by failing to declare his shareholding in a company run by his sister that was awarded an NHS contract, Boris Johnson's new ethics adviser has found.

Lord Geidt, a former private secretary to the Queen who now advises the Prime Minister on his ministers' potential conflicts of interest, said Mr Hancock had inadvertently broken the code by failing to declare his shares but had acted "with integrity" throughout.

The Health Secretary has a 20 per cent stake in Topwood Limited, a company run by his sister and her husband. In February 2019, it was awarded a "framework contract" with the NHS, which set out terms on how the firm could do business with the health service in future.

Mr Hancock said he did not know the company had received a contract with the NHS and therefore could not "reasonably" have been expected to declare it.

Lord Geidt's report said a "reasonable person might perceive this link to represent a conflict of interest", although the "circumstances of it being received" means there was not actually evidence of a conflict.

Mr Hancock's role as Health Secretary means he is a shareholder in NHS Shared Business Services (SBS), the part of the health service that awarded the contract to his sister's company.

Friday's report concluded that "the activity of NHS SBS may have been very far from the Secretary of State's main focus" and that Mr Hancock had only accidentally failed to declare his interest.

The ministerial code, which governs how ministers conduct themselves in public office, requires them to "scrupulously avoid any danger of an actual or perceived conflict of interest between their ministerial position and their private financial interests".

"I assess this earlier failure to declare the interest was as a result of his lack of knowledge and in no way deliberate, and therefore, in technical terms, a minor breach of the ministerial code," Lord Geidt wrote. "In coming to this finding, I recognise that Mr Hancock has acted with integrity throughout and that this event should in no way impugn his good character or ministerial record."

Following the publication of the report, which also dealt with Lord Brownlow's funding of the refurbishment of Mr Johnson's Downing Street flat, Mr Hancock wrote to the Prime Minister to assure him his "goal has always been to act properly and honestly in these matters".

"I did not know about the framework decision and I do not think I could reasonably have been expected to declare it," he wrote. "Any perceived breach could only be technical in nature because it is simply not possible to declare something I did not know."

Mr Johnson replied, praising Mr Hancock for acting "properly and honestly" in declaring the shareholding when he became aware of the NHS framework contract.