§ 4. Lord Apsleyasked the Secretary of State for Air whether, under existing regulations, any servant of the Crown serving in the Department of Civil Aviation, or the Minister or Under-Secretary of State in charge of the Department at the time of the formation of the corporations which are to be given the monopoly of civil aviation, internal and external, are debarred, on retirement, from seeking any employment directly or indirectly connected with commercial activities of the financial groups in control of the combine?
§ The Secretary of State for Air (Sir Samuel Hoare)The principles governing the acceptance of business appointments by officers of the Crown Services are laid down in Command Paper 5517, which was presented to Parliament in July, 1937. These require that civil servants of the higher grades must get the assent of the Minister in charge of their Department before accepting employment in undertakings such as those referred to by my Noble Friend. This applies to them not only while they are on the active list, 939 but also for two years after their retirement. Such procedure is obviously inapplicable to Ministers, for whom the surest guide lies, as successive Prime Ministers have pointed out, in the traditional standards of public life.