Body that led to Blunkett's downfall facing abolition; appointments committee has clashed with PM

By David Hencke

December 19, 2005

Tony Blair is examining confidential proposals to abolish the anti-sleaze watchdog that triggered the resignation of his former cabinet colleague David Blunkett last month. The controversial move is part of a package of measures to speed up procedures to allow ministers and civil servants to take up lucrative jobs when they leave the government and Whitehall.

The recommendation to scrap the 30-year-old advisory committee on business appointments, chaired by the former Tory cabinet minister Lord Mayhew, is contained in a report from Sir Patrick Brown, a former Department for Transport permanent secretary who now chairs the private sector rail and bus group, Go Ahead. All senior civil servants, diplomats and armed services chiefs have to get approval from the committee before taking up private sector jobs, and ex-ministers are expected to consult about paid outside jobs.

Mr Blunkett's downfall was sealed when Lord Mayhew revealed he had not consulted over his directorship with DNA Sciences, and released correspondence showing the minister had ignored the ministerial code.

The report was commissioned by Sir Andrew (now Lord) Turnbull, the former cabinet secretary, on Mr Blair's behalf after the prime minister clashed with the watchdog 18 months ago over the appointment of the former air chief marshal Sir John Day as a military adviser to BAE Systems. Mr Blair overruled the committee's recommendation that the appointment be delayed by a year to avoid any suggestion the company would gain "inside knowledge" of defence contracts.

The watchdog had already called for tighter controls of the "growing traffic" between the Ministry of Defence and arms contractors which had led to 344 appointments in recent years. Another independent watchdog, the committee on standards in public life, wanted to conduct an inquiry into changing the 70-year-old rules but was blocked by the Cabinet Office. Mr Blair asked Sir Patrick to complete his report by October last year but the former mandarin did not deliver his findings until the summer. Ministers and civil servants have sat on the report since then - despite it being circulated to permanent secretaries - because of the controversy over Mr Blunkett.

Sir Patrick's original remit did not cover ex-ministers taking on new jobs, but he recommends abolishing the committee that vets their applications. This means that Mr Blair may have to find a new mechanism to do this or keep a downgraded version of the committee.

The report does not propose much change to the rules deferring people taking up jobs for up to two years in the most sensitive cases. But, instead of keeping an independent committee, responsibility for approving new jobs is likely to be given to the civil service commissioners. The rules will make it more difficult to monitor ex-ministers accepting posts, since the appointments are likely to be buried in an annual report from the commissioners.

The present committee has no powers to bar ministers from taking up paid appointments, relying instead on "naming and shaming" those who ignore its advice - as with Mr Blunkett.

Sir Patrick declined to comment on his proposals.