§ Norman BakerTo ask the Prime Minister how many applications were referred by the Cabinet Secretary to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments in respect of employees or former employees of(a) MI5, (b) MI6 and (c) GCHQ in each year from 1 May 1997. [54669]
§ The Prime MinisterNone. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments considers applications from the most senior Crown servants who wish to take up outside appointments within two years of leaving the service. It is independent and the Cabinet Secretary has no role in referring these applications to it.
The committee is serviced by its own secretariat and it gives its advice directly to me, or, if the applicant is a diplomat or in MI6, to the Foreign Secretary. Since 1 May 1997 until the end of the reporting year on 31 March 2002, the committee has considered no applications from MI5 or GCHQ, and two (one in 1998 and one earlier this year) from MI6.
Business appointment applications from staff below the most senior levels are dealt with by the Department itself, after Cabinet Office advice if appropriate under the rules. However, the rules make provision, exceptionally, for any application to be referred to the advisory committee if the Head of the Home civil service and the departmental Minister so agree. In the period concerned there have been no such cases in MI5, MI6 or GCHQ.