Advisory Committee on Business Appointments

HC Deb 19 November 1998 vol 319 cc748-9W

Mr. O'Neill

To ask the Prime Minister what steps he proposes to take following the recent report of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments. [60836]

The Prime Minister

I am today placing in the Libraries of both Houses revised "Guidelines on the Acceptance of Appointments or Employment outside Governments by Former Ministers of the Crown". They will replace the existing Guidelines, which the Committee said could be improved, from the start of the next Session of Parliament.

The changes are designed to make clearer the role of the Committee and the circumstances in which former Ministers should consult them, and do not alter the system itself which the Committee reported was otherwise working well.