The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments is set to be abolished this autumn, with its functions being split off, as part of a standards shakeup which aims to bring “tougher rules, fewer bodies and clearer lines of accountability”.
An overhaul of the post-government jobs system for former ministers, civil servants and special advisers has long been called for, and former Acoba chair Eric Pickles in June told MPs the regulator was “dead in the water, next to useless, utterly pointless and in need of reform”.
Here, CSW explores how the reforms will affect civil servants.
The status quo
Ministers and Crown servants at all levels are subject to the business appointment rules, which set out when advice must be sought for post-government roles. The rules exist to prevent profit from knowledge of, and contacts within, Whitehall, and to prevent any perception of wrongdoing.
For civil servants, the rules differ depending on grade – as shown in the table below – with Acoba only getting involved in applications from permanent secretaries and directors general.
Table from this House of Commons Library research briefing (p.39)
What’s changing and who is affected?
Acoba is set to be abolished on 13 October, with its functions transferring over to the Civil Service Commission and the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial standards.
From then on, departing and departed ministers will receive advice from the PM’s independent adviser on ministerial interests, while the Civil Service Commission will advise civil servants and spads who have left or are leaving government.
The Civil Service Commission is currently responsible for regulating recruitment into the civil service, ensuring that appointments are made on merit after fair and open competition. It also has a role in handling complaints under the civil service code and in promoting the code.
The changes will see it add regulation of civil servants’ post-government jobs (within two years of departure) to its duties, and for the first time see spads come under its remit – though only in relation to the business appointment rules.
"The current system is too slow and puts people off government roles”
Pat McFadden
The reforms will also have some impact on civil servants below the highest grades. McFadden has asked the commission to – upon the transfer of powers on 13 October – begin regular audits of departments’ decision-making on post-government jobs for officials below DG-level to “improve consistency” of the application of the rules across departments.
McFadden formally invited the commission to take on responsibility for the administration and advice on applications from senior civil servants and equivalent special advisers under the business appointment rules system in a letter sent to first civil service commissioner Gisela Stuart on 9 July.
Why have ministers decided to transfer these powers to the commission?
In the letter to Stuart – who leads the commission – McFadden explained that the PM had decided it would be more efficient and appropriate to transfer Acoba’s functions to “existing bodies and with office holders that already provide independent oversight of aspects of the civil service and the ministerial code respectively”.
McFadden said the commission’s current recruitment responsibilities makes it “well-suited” to overseeing the rules for post-government roles for the most senior civil servants.
“Just as the proper application of the civil service recruitment principles helps to protect the integrity of, and trust in, the civil service, so too must the proper application of the business appointment rules at the end of civil servants' careers in government,” he said.
He said the transfer of powers to the commission “should also help to provide clarity to those joining the civil service as to what the requirements on exit will be”.
McFadden said the commission has “made good progress recently in embedding efficient and responsive arrangements for managing appointments by exception” and that he hopes the commission can bring this and other experiences “to bear in the context of the business appointment rules system”.
He said the remit to audit departments’ performance should also “align well” with the commission’s current function auditing a sample of recruitment campaigns across departments each year.
Ministers seek faster, simpler process
McFadden also set out ministers’ priorities for reforming the business appointment rules and how it wants the commission to implement them in an annex to the letter.
He said the system needs to have “clear rules and processes" and that the introduction of departmental audits and planned changes to ministerial severance payments will bolster this. But he said the system is “too slow”, with applicants having to wait weeks or months for decisions to be made, which in turn “puts people off taking up government roles”.
A quicker and simpler system should also result in fewer breaches, as those subject to the rules will have less incentive to disengage from the system, he said.
"It is clearly counterproductive not to ever allow restrospective applications"
Pat McFadden
The annex also says the commission should work with civil servants in the Cabinet Office to create a streamlined application process for roles where there is a lower threat to the integrity of government – such as journalism, media appearances, and academia – with more detailed consideration and conditions reserved for genuinely complex or higher risk applications.
And it asks the commission to move towards a “culture of support and advice” by changing the way it deals with retrospective applications.
Currently, applications sent in after jobs have already been taken up are not normally accepted. McFadden said the commission should adopt a position whereby, if the person acknowledges their error and agrees to follow the process, they can still receive advice and be subject to conditions.
“While the rules rightly discourage retrospective applications in order to ensure initial compliance from applicants, it is clearly counterproductive not to ever allow them,” he said. “To do so risks people breaching the rules and then being able to take up roles without any conditions.”
McFadden said these changes should not be seen as weakening the system. “On the contrary, they are about recalibrating it to allow for the swifter processing of most applications to provide for attention to be given to the minority of cases that genuinely warrant it,” he said.
The aim of this, McFadden said, is to “not create a process for its own sake but as a genuine means to ensuring people can move into roles outside of government quickly, providing the appropriate safeguards are in place”.
McFadden also asked Stuart to report to him, once the commission has taken on the function, with recommendations to further strengthen the business appointment rules.
Responding to McFadden’s letter on 11 July, Stuart said she has carefully considered the proposals and that she and the board of civil service commissioners agreed the changes offer the commission “an important opportunity to achieve its objectives”.
Stuart said the commission is “well established as a predictable and proportionate regulator that operates at pace” and is therefore “optimally placed” to deliver ministers’ expectations of a faster, streamlined system.
Stuart seeks assurances
While the Civil Service Commission has agreed to take on the function, Stuart said three things need to happen first.
One is the “timely publication” of the revised rules before the commission assumes responsibility, “to ensure clarity of expectations for applicants and the wider system and so that the commission can promptly deliver the new function in line with minister’s expressed priorities”.
Second is the need for sufficient resources to take on the new function. Stuart said the commission will work with Cabinet Office officials to design an organisational structure “which makes effective use of resources and draws on existing systems and good practice”.
“It seems outside the commission’s experience and remit to ask them to provide advice on the external activities of former special advisers"
Alex Burghart
The commission believes the new functions will require two teams: one fundamentally to redesign and deliver a process to provide timely advice in relation to applications, and another to deliver the new robust and timely audit function. Stuart said the commission and commissioners “will also require the associated budget to deliver these roles effectively”.
Thirdly, Stuart said the commission’s website will be the entry point for applications, and will need additional funding to bring it up to the required standard. She added that the commission “would welcome discussion on how the development of digital functions can also be used to drive efficiencies and an improved applicant experience”.
What about spads and ministers?
While regulation of the most senior spads’ post-government jobs is set to come under the remit of the Civil Service Commission, there is little detail on how this will work in practice.
Writing to McFadden recently to raise a series of questions over the standards overhaul, Alex Burghart, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, questioned the logic of giving the commission this role.
"The Civil Service Commission’s role is to provide assurance that civil servants are selected on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, and to help safeguard an impartial civil service,” he wrote. “They have no role in relation to special advisers, who are temporary civil servants, appointed without competition, and who are not subject to the political impartiality provisions of the civil service code.
“It seems outside the commission’s experience and remit to ask them to provide advice on the external activities of former special advisers who have left Crown employment."
For ministers, the function moving over to the PM’s independent adviser on ministerial standards is a more natural fit. The current adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, already provides independent advice to the PM on adherence to the ministerial code, and to individual ministers on the appropriate management of their private interests while in office.
One change to the rules for ministers has been trailed so far: McFadden said ministers will in future, in the event of a serious breach of the business appointment rules, be asked to repay any severance payment they have received.