Mr. Bruee-Gardyneasked the Prime Minister how many civil servants have 298W applied for permission to take up employment in firms with which the Government have a relationship or where firms might obtain an unfair advantage from knowledge obtained during their service, over the past 10 years; and on how many occasions such approval has been refused.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerI have been asked to reply.
Where the rules require civil servants to obtain permission, it is given by their Departments and only certain cases are referred to the Civil Service Department. As it is not the practice to record centrally cases in the field of conduct which are handled by Departments within their own discretion, I cannot give a total figure of applications for permission and it is not possible to say on how many occasions approval has been refused by each Department. There have been some 80 references to the CSD since it was set up in 1968, and after careful examination permission was given in each case. There have been two cases in the CSD itself since 1968 and in both permission was given.