Decision

Advice letter: Lee Rowley, Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition, Conservative Party

Updated 16 September 2024

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: Lee Rowley, former Minister for Housing, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Appointment with the Conservative Party.

You sought advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (the Committee) under the government’s Business Appointments Rules for Former Ministers (the Rules) on an appointment you wish to take up with the Conservative Party as Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition.

The purpose of the Rules is to protect the integrity of the government. The Committee has considered the risks associated with the actions and decisions made during your time in office, alongside the information and influence you may offer the Conservative Party. The material information taken into consideration by the Committee is set out in the annex.

The Committee’s advice is not an endorsement of the appointment - it imposes a number of conditions to mitigate the potential risks to the government associated with the appointment under the Rules.

The Ministerial Code sets out that ministers must abide by the Committee’s advice. It is an applicant’s personal responsibility to manage the propriety of any appointment. Former ministers of the Crown, and Members of Parliament, are expected to uphold the highest standards of propriety and act in accordance with the 7 Principles of Public Life.

2. The Committee’s consideration of the risks presented

You had dealings with the Conservative Party in your capacity as Minister for Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities^{[footnote 1]}. There is no evidence you made decisions or took action in office that favoured the Conservative Party in expectation of this role. The prospective employer here is also your former employer and the party that you have been politically affiliated with for a number of years. Therefore, the Committee^{[footnote 2]} considered the risk that this appointment could reasonably be perceived as a reward for decisions made or actions taken in office to be low.

As a former minister, there are inherent risks associated with your access to privileged information and knowledge. However, the usual considerations around an applicant’s access to information and whether it could grant the prospective employer unfair advantage are largely redundant, as it is highly unlikely you had access to any information unavailable to the employer. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) confirmed that it had no concerns regarding your access to information.

The Committee considered any risks associated with your influence and network of contacts in government to be minimal. There is no risk of unfair commercial gain, and little risk of being seen to have had undue influence in future contracts with/or funding from government. There is also an agreed framework for contact between HM Official Opposition and government.  Any contact to discuss matters of policy initiated by the employer must be on the express permission of ministers. The exception to that is during a pre-election period, once the Prime Minister has given permission for opposition parties to enter into confidential discussions with senior civil servants without the permission or knowledge of ministers.

3. The Committee’s advice 

You clearly state you will not be involved in lobbying and that it is not the focus of the role, and the standard conditions which are set out below prevent you from doing so, including indirectly through contacts you have gained as a minister.  You are not prevented from doing so if this is at the request of government. You may have contact with government as part of the normal business of HM Official Opposition.

The Committee determined the risks identified can be appropriately mitigated by the conditions below. These make it clear that you cannot make use of privileged information, contacts or influence gained from your time in ministerial service to the unfair advantage of the Conservative Party.

In accordance with the government’s Business Appointment Rules, the Committee advises that this role with the Conservative Party be subject to the following conditions:

• you should not draw on (disclose or use for the benefit of yourself or the persons or organisations to which this advice refers) any privileged information available to you from your time in ministerial office;

• for two years from your last day in ministerial office, you should not become personally involved in lobbying the UK government or its arm’s length bodies on behalf of the Conservative Party (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients); nor should you make use, directly or indirectly, of your contacts in the government and/or Crown service to influence policy, secure business/funding or otherwise unfairly advantage the Conservative Party (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients); and

• for two years from your last day in ministerial office you should not undertake any work with the Conservative Party (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients) that involves providing advice on the terms of, or with regard to the subject matter of a bid with, or contract relating directly to the work of, the UK government or its arm’s length bodies.

The advice and the conditions under the government’s Business Appointment Rules relate to your previous role in government only; they are separate from rules administered by other bodies such as the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Registrar of Lords’ Interests^{[footnote 3]}. It is an applicant’s personal responsibility to understand any other rules and regulations they may be subject to in parallel with this Committee’s advice.

You must inform us as soon as you take up employment with this organisation, or if it is announced that you will do so and we will publish this letter on our website. Any failure to do so may lead to a false assumption being made about whether you had complied with the Rules.

You must inform us if you propose to extend or otherwise change the nature of your role as, depending on the circumstances, it may be necessary for you to make a fresh application.

Once the appointment has been publicly announced or taken up, we will publish this letter on the Committee’s website

4. Annex - Material Information

4.1 The role

The Conservative Party is a political party registered with the Electoral Commission, and the current governing party. It is also your former employer and you were formerly a Conservative Member of Parliament.

You said that you wish to take up a full-time, paid role as Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition.You said your role would involve:

• management of the structures and people around Leader of the Opposition
• interaction with the Conservative parliamentary and voluntary party
• possible interactions with government departments – although you would expect them to be limited, in the main, to the political domain.

4.2 Dealings in office

You had dealings with the Conservative Party whilst in office, by virtue of your party affiliation and your role as a minister. You did not have any involvement in policy, regulatory or commercial decisions that would have been specific to the Conservative Party as a political party organisation.

4.3 Departmental Assessment 

MHCLG confirmed the details you provided, confirmed that it had no any concerns regarding your access to information and recommended the role be approved subject to the standard conditions.

1. Following the General Election in June 2024, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been renamed the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.  ↩

2. This application for advice was considered by Andrew Cumpsty; Isabel Doverty; Hedley Finn OBE ;Sarah de Gay;  Dawid Konotey-Ahulu CBE DL; The Rt Hon Lord Eric Pickles; Michael Prescott; The Baroness Thornton and Mike Weir. ↩

3. All peers and Members of Parliament are prevented from paid lobbying under the House of Commons Code of Conduct and the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Lords. Advice on obligations under the Code can be sought from the Parliamentary Commissioners for Standards, in the case of MPs, or the Registrar of Lords’ Interests, in the case of peers. ↩