Transparency data

DfT: business appointment rules advice – July to September 2025

Updated 24 March 2026

Fiona White

Full name of applicant	Fiona White
Title of former Civil Service Role	Director, Rail Strategy and Analysis
Date left/retired from the Civil Service	30 May 2025
New employer	Independent Consultancy
New appointment/employment (including when taken up)	11 September 2025
Department’s decision on application (including details of any waiting period or other conditions or restrictions applied)	• you should not draw upon (disclose or use for the benefit of yourself, your prospective employer or their clients, partners or subsidiaries) any privileged information available to you from your time in Crown Service • for 2 years from your last day in Crown Service, you should not become personally involved in lobbying the Department for Transport (or any of its arms length bodies) on behalf of your consultancy, the organisations you will be working for including clients, partners or subsidiaries; nor should you make use, directly or indirectly, of your contacts in government and/or Crown service, or contacts developed during Crown Service in other governments or organisations, to influence government policy, or secure business or funding on their behalf. This does not preclude routine contact on matters aligned with government policy • for 2 years from your last day in Crown Service, you should not provide advice to any company or organisation in the terms of, or with regard to the subject matter of, a bid or contract relating directly to the work of the DfT or its Arms Length Bodies including being named as part of the project team for any bid to be submitted to the DfT during this period, unless specifically requested and agreed by DfT for specific activities only • for 2 years from your last day in Crown Service you should not be directly involved in managing or overseeing contracts with, or having project control responsibility for work with companies relating to DfT led activity, unless specifically requested and agreed by the DfT for specific activities only

Sarah Sharples

Full Name of Applicant	Sarah Sharples
Title of Former Civil Service role	Chief Scientific Adviser
Date left/retired from the Civil Service	21 September 2025
New employer	University of Manchester
New appointment/employment (including when taken up)	Vice President and Dean of Science and Engineering, 22 September 2025
Department’s decision on application (including details of any waiting period or other conditions or restrictions applied)	• you should not draw upon (disclose or use for the benefit of yourself, your prospective employer or their clients, partners or subsidiaries) any privileged information available to you from your time in Crown Service • for 2 years from your last day in Crown Service, you should not provide advice to any independent private consultancy in the terms of, or with regard to the subject matter of, a bid or contract relating directly to the work of the DfT or its arms length bodies including being named as part of the project team for any bid to be submitted to the DfT during this period, unless specifically requested and agreed by DfT for specific activities only