§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his policy on the employment of senior civil servants from his Department with a 715W knowledge of aids, appliances and prostheses by a company manufacturing such aids, appliances and prostheses; if he will list his powers to veto such appointments; if he will list the officers of his Department over the grade of principal officer formerly working in the medical division or supply division of his Department who have in each of the last five years left and subsequently worked for suppliers to the National Health Service; if he will list the companies employing such ex-departmental staff; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeIf a civil servant from our Department chooses to leave to take an appointment with a manufacturing or any other company we cannot stop this. The Official Secrets Acts continue to apply after civil servants leave the Department and protect official information.
Between 1979 and 1983 inclusive, only one officer over the grade of principal officer is known to have left DHSS to work for a company manufacturing aids, appliances or prostheses.
Successive Governments have taken the view that it would not be right to disclose details of individual cases in order to protect the reasonable expectations of privacy of the people and firms concerned.