HC Deb 08 January 2003 vol 397 c223WS
Mr. Simon Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the former employees of his Department who have taken up positions with Gracemoor Consultants, stating in each case the name and date of leaving. [82152]

Dr. Moonie

Under the Cabinet Office rules on the acceptance of outside appointments by Crown servants ("the Business Appointment Rules"), all Ministry of Defence non-industrial civilians and officers in the Armed Forces are required, within two years of leaving the Department, to apply for permission before taking up employment with an organisation connected with their official duties. Some of these applications are speculative and not all lead to external appointments being taken up. The rules require only senior officials whose applications are approved by the Prime Minister to confirm to their former department that they have taken up a new appointment on leaving the MOD. Details of such appointments are published by the Cabinet Office in the annual reports of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.