Home Office broke rules over civil servant’s paid work

THE Home Office put the integrity of the Government at risk by letting a senior civil servant retire before doing paid consultancy work for the department months later, a watchdog has said.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) said a failure to gain approval for Glyn Williams’s appointment at Fortinus Global was an “unambiguous breach of the rules”.

Mr Williams worked as director general for migration and borders at the Home Office until retiring in December 2021. However, in April 2022 he took up a job at Fortinus Global, which bills itself as a “specialist global border management consultancy”.

Lord Pickles, Acoba’s chairman, said Mr Williams “failed to seek advice” in relation to the work he did with the firm, “which resulted in him working indirectly for the Home Office again”.

The Home Office refused to say how much the company had been paid for this work, claiming it was “commercially sensitive”.

In a letter sent to the Cabinet Office, Lord Pickles said that the “failure to seek and await advice in this case was a breach of the Government’s rules” and a “cause for concern”. According to correspondence released by Acoba, the Home Office’s top civil servant, permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft, said Mr Williams had “received advice” that an application to the watchdog “would be needed for any new appointments or employment within two years”.

But in an statement sent to the watchdog, Mr Williams said he believed that approval was only needed if civil servants “have had any form of official dealings with their prospective employer” and that the rules were aimed at avoiding “the risk that that organisation might gain unfair advantage through access to privileged information”.

He told the watchdog that “as it was clear that my role would not involve sharing privileged information, I did not think I was required to seek approval through Acoba”.

In a letter sent to the Home Office, Lord Pickles said Mr Williams had acknowledged that “this was incorrect” and “he should have sought advice”.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “We are reviewing the letter from Acoba and will respond in due course.”

When The Sunday Telegraph contacted Fortinus Global, a spokesman said: “I refer you to Mr Williams’s statement and have nothing to add.”