Simon Case is up before parliament’s constitution committee, which has just published a letter from Case to its chair in which he claims following his search for moonlighting mandarins, he’s:
“not been made aware of of any instances of senior civil servants holding outside interests which are considered to conflict with their roles, or with their obligations under the Code.”
The letter is dated Friday 23rd – coincidentally the day Sir Eddie Lister resigned…
He adds he has only been made aware of fewer than one hundred senior civil servants who hold paid employment, alongside their public role, providing examples such as “tutoring or fitness instruction. In each case, the Permanent Secretary has considered the outside role alongside the individual’s obligations under the Code, and found there to be no conflict.”
“Where senior civil servants do have outside interests, they are often providing contributions to wider public life – for example as a magistrate, reservist, school governor or charity trustee. I have been heartened to see that colleagues are making a contribution to wider society and I am sure the Committee would agree that in any changes we make to manage outside interests more effectively, we should ensure that civil servants are able to continue to contribute in such a way.”
Case announces he will begin making improvements to tighten up the system following the Greensill revelations, including requiring all senior civil servants to declare any relevant interests, at least on an annual basis. He will also consider new structures to monitor the state of affairs, which will take account of any recommendations from Boardman’s review.
Read Case’s letter in full:
