Correspondence to Viscount Camrose regarding breaches of the Rules (Modern Work Foundation)
Updated 10 October 2025
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Dear Viscount Camrose,
Thank you for your correspondence to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) about your roles with the Modern Work Foundation (MWF) as Chair, UK Hiring Taskforce, and as Honorary President, the Association of RecTech Professionals (ARTP), both initiatives under its Better Hiring Institute (BHI) brand.
Under the Ministerial Code and the government’s Business Appointment Rules (the Rules) all former Ministers are obligated to seek advice for two years after leaving office. The Code states that ‘Former ministers must ensure that no new appointments are announced, or taken up, before the Committee has been able to provide its advice’.
You have informed ACOBA that you have not taken up either of these roles. You submitted an application for ACOBA’s advice on the ARTP Honorary President appointment, an unpaid role, in June 2025. In parallel, and prior to the Committee’s advice being provided, both appointments were made public on the BHI website and via various posts on BHI’s Linkedin.com profile in the period of March to September 2025.
You have acknowledged these publications and indicated that you would seek to have them removed. Nonetheless, by publicising the roles, they have had the effect of announcing them before ACOBA has been able to provide its advice.
In ACOBA’s experience, the risks under the Rules in unpaid appointments are limited. These cases will normally be subject to a standard set of conditions preventing individuals from drawing on privileged information and lobbying the UK government. The MWF’s failure to await advice before announcing the role is a clear breach of the government’s Rules and the requirements of the ministerial code. ACOBA’s established practice is not to provide advice in these circumstances.
Please see the correspondence enclosed, reporting this matter to the government, as owner of the Rules. This letter will also be copied to the government. In line with ACOBA’s commitment to transparency, the exchange of correspondence will be published on our website.
Isabel Doverty Interim Chair ACOBA
Copied to:
The Rt Hon Darren Jones MP, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations;
The Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office;
Simon Madden, Director of Propriety & Ethics, Cabinet Office.
Enclosure:
- ACOBA’s letter to the Cabinet Office