Decision

Advice Letter: Liz Sugg, Nesta

Updated 22 November 2022

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: Baroness Liz Sugg, Independent Paid appointment as Non-Executive Director, the Behavioural Insights Team, Nesta.

You sought advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (the Committee) under the government’s Business Appointments Rules for former Crown servants (the Rules) on taking up a role with Nesta. The material information taken into consideration by the Committee is set out in the annex.

The purpose of the Rules is to protect the integrity of the government. Under the Rules, the Committee’s remit is to consider the risks associated with the actions and decisions made during your time in office, alongside the information and influence you may offer Nesta, based on the information provided by you and your former departments.

The Committee has advised that a number of conditions be imposed to mitigate the potential risks to the government associated with this appointment under the Rules; this does not imply the Committee has taken a view on the appropriateness of this appointment in any other respect.

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 risk presented

Nesta has previously received funding indirectly through an arms’ length body funded by FDCO. The FCDO confirmed you had no responsibility for decisions specific to Nesta, nor did you have any contact with Nesta. As such the risk this role could reasonably be seen as a reward for decisions made or actions taken in office is low.

Whilst there is a broad overlap in the work of the FCDO (previously the Department for International Development). Therefore, you may have had 1 access to information that may be of some relevance. However, you are from drawing on privileged information and you have been out of office for more than 20 months, reducing the likelihood that any privileged information is sufficiently up-to-date.

There are also risks associated with your network of contacts gained in government service which could lead to the perception your influence might assist Nesta unfairly. This is especially relevant as Nesta received government funding.

3. The Committee’s advice

The Committee determined the conditions below which prevent you from lobbying the UK government and making improper use of your privileged access to information and contacts appropriately mitigate the risk in this case.

The Committee advises, under the government’s Business Appointment Rules, that your appointment with Nesta be subject to the following conditions:

• a waiting period of three months from your last day in ministerial office;

• 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 Nesta (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients); nor should you make use, directly or indirectly, of your contacts in the government and/or ministerial office to influence policy, secure business/funding or otherwise unfairly advantage Nesta (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients);

• for two years from your last day in ministerial office, you should not undertake any work with Nesta (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 roles in government only; they are separate to rules administered by other bodies such as the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists or the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. 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.

By ‘privileged information’ we mean official information to which a Minister or Crown servant has had access as a consequence of his or her office or 2 employment and which has not been made publicly available. Applicants are also reminded that they may be subject to other duties of confidentiality, whether under the Official Secrets Act, the Civil Service Code or otherwise.

The Business Appointment Rules explain that the restriction on lobbying means that the former Crown servant/Minister ‘should not engage in communication with Government (Ministers, civil servants, including special advisers, and other relevant officials/public office holders) – wherever it takes place - with a view to influencing a Government decision, policy or contract award/grant in relation to their own interests or the interests of the organisation by which they are employed, or to whom they are contracted or with which they hold office’.

You must inform us as soon as you take up this work, or it is announced you will do so. Once the appointment has been publicly announced or taken up, we will publish this letter on the Committee’s 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, and where appropriate, refer to it in the relevant annual report.

4. Annex - Material information

4.1 The role

Nesta is an innovation foundation based in the UK. Its website says it designs, tests and scales new solutions to society’s biggest problems.

You said you have been asked to carry out a part-time, paid non-executive director role for Nesta’s Behavioural Insights Team, which relates to tackling social impact policies. This involves providing ‘strategic insight, good governance, and diverse perspectives to the board’. You also said you would be providing advice on the Behavioural Insights Team business development strategies and policies. You said this appointment will not include contact with your former department or government more generally and you will not be involved in any lobbying of government.

4.2 Dealings in office

You advised the Committee you did not meet with Nesta whilst in office. Further, you said you did not have any involvement in any policy development or decisions that would have been specific to Nesta, and held no commercial or contractual responsibilities relating to them.

4.3 Department Assessment

The FCDO confirmed the details you provided, stating they have no concerns with the appointment.

The FCDO confirmed that whilst in government you had no official dealings with Nesta; were not involved in the awarding of contracts or funding to Nesta; and you do not have access to any privileged information that would provide Nesta an unfair advantage.

The FCDO recommended the standard conditions