Decision

Summary of business appointments applications - Sir John O'Reilly

Published 24 March 2015

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Sir John O’Reilly left his role as Director General of Knowledge and Innovation at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in January 2015.

1. Independent consultancy

Sir John sought advice on setting up an independent consultancy, advising companies and other organisations in engineering, technology and associated development of human resources.

The Prime Minister accepted the Committee’s recommendation that the application be approved subject to the following conditions:

  • that he should not draw on privileged information available to him as a Crown servant; and

  • for two years from his last day of service, he should not become personally involved in lobbying the UK Government on behalf of his new employer or its client; and

  • once he has received approval to set up as an independent consultant, for two years from his last day of service he must seek confirmation from the Committee directly that each individual commission is permissible under the terms of his consultancy before taking it up. If, after enquiry, the Committee takes the view that a commission is, or may be, outside the terms of the consultancy, he will be expected to submit a fresh application.

The letter containing the final decision was sent in February 2015 and he took up the first of his commissions later that month.

2. Commissions under independent consultancy

Since setting up as an independent consultant, Sir John has asked for the Committee’s advice on accepting a number of commissions with:

On each occasion the Committee has agreed that the commissions fall under the terms of his independent consultancy and can be accepted, subject to the conditions imposed on the consultancy.

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