The current rules around preventing a revolving door of former ministers being rewarded with plum jobs in the industry they previously presided over are “toothless” and needed strengthening, a peer has said.
Lord Pickles, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), has welcomed measures to apply fines for those found in breach of vetting procedures.
Under a new ethics regime announced by Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden this week, former ministers who breach the rules on post-government jobs could be hit by financial sanctions.
One major change is designed to prevent breaches of Acoba rules—something former prime minister Boris Johnson was recently accused of after giving the committee 30 minutes’ notice of taking up a new post as a Daily Mail columnist….