Summary of business appointments applications - Sir Peter Wall
Published 5 September 2016
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Sir Peter Wall left his role as Chief of the General Staff in January 2015.
1. Non Executive Director, General Dynamics
Sir Peter sought advice on accepting a role as a Non Executive Director with General Dynamics.
When considering this application the Committee noted that the MOD has a large number of live and closed contracts with General Dynamics. However, the Committee recognised that the Chief of Materiel (Land) was responsible for final decision-making in relation to these contracts, and that the procurement process was managed by Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) at the MOD, for which Sir Peter had no operational responsibility. They also recognised that the contracts with General Dynamics both pre and post-dated Sir Peter’s time as Head of the Army, and that his role with General Dynamics would be a non-executive one. They also noted that this appointment would not include any dealings with General Dynamics’ military customers, including DE&S and/or the UK Armed Services.
However, the Committee felt that, given the extent of the contractual relationship between General Dynamics and the MOD, and Sir Peter’s senior position, a waiting period was necessary in this case.
The Prime Minister accepted the Committee’s recommendation that there was no reason why Sir Peter should not take up this appointment subject to the following conditions:
- A waiting period of 18 months from his last day in Crown service;
- That he should not draw on [disclose or use for the benefit of himself or the organisation to which this advice refers] any privileged information available to him from his time in Government;
- For two years from his last day in Crown service he should not become personally involved in lobbying the UK Government, including the MOD and the Armed Forces, either formally or informally on behalf of General Dynamics Corporation, its subsidiaries or clients;
- For two years from his last day in Crown service, he should not provide advice on the terms of a bid or contract relating directly to the work of the MOD; and
- He should not have any involvement with matters relating to the Scout contract.
The letter containing the final advice was sent in September 2015 and the appointment was taken up in August 2016.