§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which former officials of the Department have asked for permission to join(a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst and Young and (d) KPMG. [156909]
§ Alan JohnsonAll civil servants are subject to the Business Appointment Rules, which set out the circumstances in which they must seek permission to accept outside appointments with al two years of leaving the service. A copy of the Rules is available in the Libraries of the House. Information about appointments taken up by the most senior staff is published in the annual reports of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments. The next annual report will be published shortly.
Since 2001, my Department has received two requests for permission to take up employment with the firms listed, one for PricewaterhouseCoopers and one for KPMG. Both requests received unconditional approval in 2001.