Transparency data

DWP register of board members’ interests Apr 2022 to Mar 2023

Published 6 July 2023

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

All of our employees are bound by the Civil Service Code – the framework on which the department’s standards of behaviour are built. The consequences of failing to comply are serious and attract penalties up to and including dismissal. The department’s Standards of Behaviour Policy and Procedures apply to employees at all grades.

It is mandated in the department’s internally published Standards of Behaviour Procedures that employees’ interests and activities outside of work must not create conflict of interest or potential for perceived conflict of interest with their official role and they must not bring the department into disrepute. Our employees are specifically instructed in the Standards of Behaviour Procedures never to request special treatment from any client of the department that would benefit their outside interests. Our employees are also specifically required to consult their line manager and seek permission if they are proposing to take up a second occupation or any position with a non-political organisation (political activity is controlled under separate rules) if it could create a conflict of interests, or appear to create a conflict of interests.   Further, our employees must seek their manager’s written permission to take up any non-executive directorship during their employment with the department.

In addition to the department’s standing requirement for all staff to discuss potential conflicts with their manager before taking up an external appointment, our Senior Civil Servants are required to declare any interests which they hold to the Permanent Secretary on an annual basis.  The information has been gathered during the year and has been reviewed by the Permanent Secretary. The returns were also scrutinised by our departmental Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. We are also in the process of finalising a legal agreement for Charlie Steel for any conflict of interest or unfair advantage that may arise from his association with IWG PLC.

At the beginning of every Departmental Board meeting, all members are asked to declare any new potential conflicts of interest. These are noted in the minutes along with the appropriate action taken to manage them. Where a Board member declares a potential conflict at a meetings, it is recorded in the minutes and the Board member takes no part in any discussions relating to that matter. There were no conflicts of interests registered during board meetings in 2022-23. We managed Nick Markham’s interests with a legal agreement that defined the protocols to be followed to prevent, identify and remedy any conflict of interest or unfair advantage (whether actual, potential or perceived) that may have arisen from the Housing Support initiative.

None of our ministers held directorships that conflicted with their management responsibilities in 2022 to 2023.

In addition, in line with the current Declaration of Interest policy for special advisers, all special advisers have declared any relevant interest or confirmed they do not consider they have any relevant interests. The Permanent Secretary has considered these returns and the following relevant interests are set out in public.  

A comprehensive list of directors and non-executive board members’ interests as of 31 March 2023 is shown below .

Ministers

Name	Name of company or organisation	Position Held	Type of Interest (for example pay, fees, shareholding)	Other relevant information
Rt Hon Dr Thérèse Coffey MP	East Coast Hospice	Patron	Unpaid
	Suffolk Coast Rural Responders	Patron	Unpaid
	Friends of St. Mary’s College, Crosby	Patron	Unpaid
	Suffolk Agricultural Association	Life Vice President	Unpaid
	International Distribution Services PLC (formerly Royal Mail Group PLC)		Shareholding
Guy Opperman MP				Nil Return
Chloe Smith MP	Norwich for Jobs strategic board	Member	Unpaid	Co led by DWP
	Wensum Academy Trust	Member	Unpaid
	Great Eastern Mainline Rail Taskforce	Member	Unpaid
	YMCA Norfolk	Patron	Unpaid
	Eating Matters	Patron	Unpaid
	Surviving Together	Patron	Unpaid
	Norfolk and Norwich Novi Sad Association	Honorary VP	Unpaid
David Rutley MP	East Cheshire Hospice	Vice President	Unpaid
	NSPCC East Cheshire Branch	Patron	Unpaid
	Bridgend Centre	Patron	Unpaid
	Bollington Iniative Trust	Patron	Unpaid
	Rossendale Trust	Patron	Unpaid
	Poynton Youth and Community Centre	Honorary president	Unpaid
Mims Davies MP	Building Hereos Education Foundation	Trustee	Unpaid	Resigned March 2019
Baroness Stedman-Scott OBE DL	The For Baby’s Sake Trust	Trustee	Unpaid	Resigned November 2019
	Salvation Army For baby’s sake	Trustee	Unpaid	Resigned November 2019
Victoria Prentis MP				Nil Return
Laura Trott MBE MP				Spouse/Partner is a partner at PWC - there are plans in place handle any conflicts of interest
Tom Pursglove MP	Corby Town Deal Board	Member	Unpaid
Alex Burghart MP				Nil Return
Julie Marson MP				Nil Return
Rt Hon Mel Stride MP				Nil Return
Claire Coutinho MP				Nil Return
Lord James Younger				Nil Return

Departmental Board non-executive members

Name	Name of company or organisation	Position Held	Type of Interest (for example pay, fees, shareholding)	Other relevant information
Lord Nick Markham	AnyNest RP Ltd	Director	Unpaid	Dissolved October 2021
	VHS Retail Ltd (formerly Beetamax Professional Services Limited)	Director	Shareholding	In liquidation
	Chock Professional Services Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned September 2022
	Cignpost Diagnostics Ltd	Co-founder and Director	Fees and shareholder	Resigned September 2022
	Cignpost Investments Ltd	Director	shareholdings	Resigned as Director September 2022
	Cignpost Medical Services Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Is part of Cignpost Diagnostics Ltd group. Resigned September 2022
	Farnborough Park Consulting	Director	Fees and shareholder	Resigned September 2022
	Forton Firewood and Sawmill Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned April 2023
	Fusion Swansea DEVCO Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned March 2019
	Hana Investments Ltd	Director	Unpaid	Company dissolved January 2023
	Inchora ltd	Director	Fees and shareholder	Resigned September 2022.
	Inview Africa	Director	Paid and shareholder	Resigned March 2020
	Inview Africa DSO LLP		Shareholding	Dissolved November 2020
	Inview Interactive Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned Septemhber 2022
	Inview Nigeria	Director	Paid and shareholder	Resigned March 2020
	Inview Solutions	Director	Paid and shareholder	Dissolved January 2021
	Inview Technology Ltd	Chair	Paid and shareholder	Resigned November 2019
	Red Knife Ltd (formerly Little Boat Ltd)	Director	Unpaid	Resigned June 2021
	London & Continental Railways Ltd	Director / Chair	Paid	This company is involved with the Housing Support Initiative. The department is managing any conflict that may arise with a legal agreement that defines the protocols to be followed. Resigned September 2022
	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government	Non-executive Director	Paid	End of term December 2018
	Penneys XI Ltd	Director	Paid and shareholder
	Project Little Boat Ltd	Director	Unpaid	Dissolved April 2022
	R2B H Ltd	Director	Fees and shareholder
	Safe Haven London	Trustee	Unpaid	Resigned September 2022
	Seed Developments Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned Septemhber 2022
	Seed Invesco Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned Septemhber 2022
	Simple Sowing Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned Septemhber 2022
	Super Subs (Blandford) Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned April 2018
	Super Subs (Shaftsbury) Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned May 2021
	Top up TV 2 Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned Septemhber 2022
	Top up TV Europe Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned Septemhber 2022
	Top up TV Holdings Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Resigned Septemhber 2022
	VHS (Retail) Ltd	Director	Shareholding	Dissolved July 2021
	Duke Midco Limited	Director	Shareholding	Resigned June 2018
	ZPW Investments			Inview Technology Ltd was a director of this company until it resigned March 2021
David Holt	Ebbsfleet Development Corporation	Deputy Chair	Paid	Executive NDPB sponsored by the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government. Resigned January 2022
	Hanover Housing Association	Non-executive Board Member	Paid	Resigned November 2018
	Hanover Housing Developments Ltd	Non-executive Board Member	Paid	Resigned November 2018
	Hanover Housing Ltd	Non-executive Board Member	Paid	Resigned November 2018
	Planning Inspectorate	Non-Executive Director	Fees	Executive NDPB sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Government End of Term December 2019.
	Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust	Senior Independent Director	Paid	End of term October 2022
	Whittingham Health NHS Trust	Non-executive Director	Paid	Resigned December 2019
	Ministry of Defence	Non-executive Director	Paid
	Norfold and Waveney NHS Integrated Care Board	Non-executive Director	Paid
Ashley Machin	Lloyds Banking Group		Shareholding
	Masthaven Bank	Chair	Paid
	Atlanta Insurance Intermediaries Limited (formerly Swinton Group Ltd)	Non-executive Director	Paid	Resigned December 2018
Eleanor Shawcross	COSMIC	Trustee	Unpaid	Resigned October 2022
	Primary School Governing Board	Governor	Unpaid	Resigned October 2022
	The BookTrust	Trustee	Unpaid	Resigned October 2019
	Zinc	Visiting Fellow	Unpaid	Commenced February 2022
	Wimpole Street Residents Association	Director	Unpaid
Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth	BBC	Chief HR Officer	Paid	Resigned November 2019
	CIPD	Chair	Unpaid
	VHD Consulting Ltd	Mentor and Consultant	Fees	Small amount of paid mentoring work. Potentially 40 days paid consultancy work over a 6 month period
David Bennett	Ashmore Group plc	Chair	Fees	Resigned April 2022
	Blemain Finance Ltd	Director	Fees	Resigned January 2019
	Clydesdale Bank PLC	Director	Fees
	David Bennett Avisory Ltd	Director	Paid	Resigned April 2020
				Spouse/Partner is a Non-Executive Director for HMT - there are plans in place handle any conflicts of interest
	M:QUBE	Advisor	Fees
	Paypal (Europe) S.a.r.L et cie	Director	Fees
	PayPal Australia	Advisor	Pay	Resigned 30/09/2022
	PayPal Digital Currency	Advisor	Pay
	Rugby School	Governor	Unpaid	Resigned June 2020
	Spot Finance Ltd	Director	Fees	Resigned January 2019
	Together123 Ltd	Director	Fees	Resigned January 2019
	Together Personal Finance Ltd	Director	Fees	Resigned January 2019
	Virgin Money Limited (Formerly Virgin Money PLC)	Director	Fees	Resigned May 2021
	Virgin Money UK PLC	Chair	Paid
	Allfund Group	Chair	Paid
Ian Wilson	BPDTS Ltd	Non-executive Director	Paid	Resigned June 2021
	Church of England Pensions Board	Trustee	Unpaid
	DXC UK Trustee Ltd	Director	Paid
	Friends of Milton Keynes Hospital Charity	Trustee	Unpaid	Resigned June 2021
	Government Actuary’s Department	Non-executive Director	Paid	Also Chair of Audit Committee
	LFMKH Ltd	Director	Paid	Resigned June 2021
	Royal College of General Practitioners	Trustee	Unpaid
	Milton Keynes University Hospital Foundation Trust	Associate Non-executive Director	Paid	Role ended 31 March 2020
	Ministry of Defence: Defence Business Services	Non-executive Director	Paid	Term of office completed in June 2021
	Purple Leaf Solutions Ltd	Director	Paid
	RCGP Superannuation fund Trust company LTD	Director	Unpaid
	Royal Holloway, University of London	Council member	Unpaid	Also Chair of Finance Committee
	UKRI	Non-executive Director	Paid	Audit, Risk Assurance and Performance Committee. Resigned March 2023
Sally Cheshire	CAFCASS	Chair	Paid	Executive NDPB sponsored by Ministry of Justice
	NHS Resolution	Chair	Paid	Special health authority sponsored by Department of Health and Social Care
	Care Quality Commission	Non-executive Director and Chair of Audit and Corporate Governance Committee	Paid	Executive NDPB sponsored by Department of Health and Social Care Chair of Audit Committee. Role ended 31/12/2022
	Health Education England - LETB North	Chair	Paid	Executive NDPB sponsored by Department of Health and Social Care Role ended 31 March 2020
	Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority	Chair	Paid	Executive NDPB sponsored by Department of Health and Social Care. Term of office completed on 31 March 2021.
Tim Nolan	LORW Investments Ltd	Director	Shares
	LORW Ltd	Director	Shares
	NHS Business Services Authority	Non-executive Director	Paid	Resigned November 2020
	Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust	Governor	Unpaid
	Spencer Close Developments Ltd	Director	Shares
	Supply Chain Co-ordination Ltd	Non-executive Director	Paid	Resigned November 2018
Simon Sear	BJSS Ltd	Director	Paid	Resigned March 2020
	Project 44 Ltd	Director/CEO	Paid	March 2020 until present
	Studio44		Unpaid	owned by Project 44
Charlie Steel	IWG PLC	Chief Financial Officer	Paid	There are plans in place handle any conflicts of interest
	IWG PLC		Shareholder
	Babylon Holdings Ltd	Chief Financial Officer	Paid	Resigned October 2022
	Babylon Holdings Ltd		Shareholder	sold shareholding upon resignation
	Ecstase Ltd		Shareholder
	Electricite de Strasbourg		Shareholder	Sold 100% of holding prior to 31 March 2023. However, repurchased during April 2023
	Friends of Varsity Trip Ltd	Director	Unpaid
	National Grid		Shareholder of the freehold
	Sloane Helicopters (Ireland) Ltd		Shareholder	Dormant company
	VGM Advisors Ltd (formerly North Pole Laundry Services Ltd)	Director	Shareholder
Arabel Bailey	Accenture		Shares
	Reckitt Benckiser		Shares
	Indivior		Shares
	Accenture	Head of Innovation	Paid	Resigned September 2020
	University Hospitals Bristol and Weston	Non executive director	Paid
Rev. Preb Gina Radford	Health and Safety Executive	Non executive director	Paid
	Church of England	Reverend	Paid
	Plymouth Marjon University	Member of Audit and Goverance Committee	Unpaid	Term of office completed in December 2022
	Public Health England’s COVID non-Pharmaceutical Interventions Ethics Group 2020 - 23	Chair	Unpaid
	National Police Chiefs’ Councils Independent	Member	Unpaid
	COVID Ethics Committee 2020 - 22	Member	Unpaid	committee disbanded June 2023
	Devon Community Foundation	Trustee	Unpaid
	St Luke’s Foundation	Chair	Unpaid

Executive Members

Name	Name of company or organisation	Position Held	Type of Interest (for example pay, fees, shareholding)	Other relevant information
Peter Schofield CB	The Civil Service Benevolent Fund	Chair	Unpaid
Nick Joicey CB	Bristol University Board of Trustees	Trustee	Unpaid	On sabbatical from January 2023 - January 2025
	The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Dulwich St Barnabas	Trustee	Unpaid
	Fera Science Ltd	Non executive director	Unpaid	Representative of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Resigned July 2018.
				Married to a member of the Shadow Cabinet - controls are in place to manage potential conflicts of interest that may arise on a case by case basis.
Simon McKinnon CBE	Longmead Management Limited	Director	Owner	This is a limited company through which I have previously provided consultancy services. It has not traded since 2008
Debbie Alder CB	Movement of Work	Steering Group member	Unpaid
	WIG	Trustee	Unpaid	Resigned December 2021
Jonathan Mills				Nil Return
Neil Couling CBE				Nil Return
Amanda Reynolds	AOB Consultancy Ltd	Managing Director	Shareholding	This company has not traded since January 2021.
Katie Farrington	Refuge	Trustee	Unpaid	There were plans in place handle any conflicts of interest (e.g. on housing benefit policy). Resigned March 2022
	Volunteering Matters	Trustee	Unpaid
Karen Gosden	FCDO Consular Service	Non Executive Director	Unpaid
Barbara Bradley	National Youth Agency	Chair	Unpaid	Resigned November 2022
Kate Davies				Nil Return
Catherine Vaughan	IWG PLC		Shareholder	There are plans in place handle any conflicts of interest
	International Distribution Services PLC (formerly Royal Mail Group PLC)		Shareholder	There are plans in place handle any conflicts of interest
Sophie Dean				Nil Return
Katherine Green				Nil Return

Special advisers

Name	Name of company or organisation	Position Held	Type of Interest (for example pay, fees, shareholding)	Other relevant information
Edward Winfield	Accenture PLC		Shareholding
	International Distribution Services PLC (formerly Royal Mail Group PLC)		Shareholding
				Partner works at Deloitte
Tim Sculthorpe				Nil Return
Laura Maher				Nil Return
Caroline Elsom				Nil Return
Isabel Bruce				Nil Return
James Heywood				Nil Return
Rebecca Macintyre				Nil Return

Other

Name	Name of company or organisation	Position Held	Type of Interest (for example pay, fees, shareholding)	Other relevant information
John McGlynn	APM Association for project Management	Trustee	Unpaid	Nov 2014 to Sept 2020
	APM Association for project Management	Chair of Board of trustees	Unpaid	Nov 2016 to Sept 2020
	SNC Lavalin	Director	Paid