HC Deb 19 December 1973 vol 866 cc1340-1
30. Mr. George Cunningham

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the information about the salary of the former Director of Finance of the Crown Agents and his proposed remuneration as joint deputy chairman of First National Finance Corporation that was before him when he gave his approval for the director to take up the appointment immediately on resignation as a member of the staff of the Crown Agents in accordance with the procedures set out in Estacode section K.

Mr. Wood

Mr. Challis's salary at the Crown Agents was £8,675 a year. I had no information about his prospective salary in private employment.

Mr. Cunningham

Will the Minister acknowledge that he has taken personal responsibility for allowing this switch to take place? If the gentleman in question had been a civil servant, does he, with hindsight, consider that it was unwise of him to do so, since the Director of Finance of the Crown Agents had been in that position over many years, placing funds amounting to millions of pounds with First National Finance Corporation before taking up a position as deputy chairman on the next day? With hindsight, does the Minister agree that it was an undesirable move to allow?

Mr. Wood

No, Sir. Hindsight has made no difference to my view. I was consulted about this matter before I expressed my view. I saw no reason to disapprove. Therefore, I share the responsibility for that decision.

Mr. Cunningham

Share?

Mr. Wood

Yes—share. The suggestion was made to me by the Crown Agent and I saw no reason to disapprove of his judgment. Having reflected on this matter, if that proposition were put to me now, I should take the same view as I took then.

Mr. Spearing

The Minister has stated that he has no knowledge of the present salary of this gentleman as joint deputy chairman of First National Finance Corporation. Does that mean that when he decided to give his permission for this appointment he did not think that the salary that that gentleman would get in his new position was relevant to the matters that he had to weigh in making that choice?

Mr. Wood

It means that I felt that it was quite wrong, when I was consulted by the Crown Agent on this matter, to base my decision in any way on a comparison of salaries. The rules in Estacode, to which I have referred, do not require any knowledge of a future salary.