Decision

Advice letter: Guy Opperman, Advisor, Carne Group

Published 14 January 2026

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: Mr Guy Opperman, former Minister for Roads and Local Transport at the Department for Transport, and previously Minister for Employment at the Department for Work and Pensions. Paid appointment with Carne Group Fund Managers Limited.

You approached the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (the Committee) under the government’s Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers (the Rules) seeking advice on taking up a paid role as an Advisor with Carne Group Fund Managers Limited (Carne Group).

The purpose of the Rules is to protect the integrity of the government. The Committee has considered the risks associated with the actions and decisions taken during your time in office, alongside the information and influence you may offer Carne Group. The material information taken into consideration by the Committee is set out in the annex.

The Committee’s advice is not an endorsement of the appointment – it imposes a number of conditions to mitigate the potential risks to the government associated with the appointment under the Rules.

The Ministerial Code sets out that ministers must abide by the Committee’s advice. It is an applicant’s personal responsibility to manage the propriety of any appointment. Former ministers of the Crown, and Members of Parliament, are expected to uphold the highest standards of propriety and act in accordance with the 7 Principles of Public Life.

2. The Committee’s consideration of the risks presented

Carne Group is a third-party fund management company. It provides outsourced fund management solutions to asset managers and pension funds. You said that your role of Advisor is to help the business understand UK Pension Funds.

Your former departments - the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed you did not meet with, nor did you have any involvement in decisions specific to Carne Group during your time in office. The Committee^{[footnote 1]} considered the risk this appointment could reasonably be perceived as a reward for decisions made or actions taken in office is low.

There is no particular overlap with your most recent role at DfT and it has been 23 months since you left your ministerial roles at DWP. As a minister, there are inherent risks associated with your access to privileged information. Both your former departments confirmed they are not aware of any sensitive information you have access to that would offer an unfair advantage to Carne Group. Further, it has been 13 months since you left office – creating a gap from when you last had access to information and reducing the currency of information you may possess.

As with any former minister, there are risks associated with your contacts and influence within government and the potential for Carne Group to gain unfair access or influence as a result. You confirmed your role as Advisor excludes any dealings with government, reducing the risk you could be perceived to be lobbying government – which all former ministers are prevented from doing for two years after leaving office.

The Committee has also taken into account your background in the financial services sector, prior to joining government.

3. The Committee’s advice

The Committee determined the risks identified can be appropriately mitigated by the conditions below. These seek to prevent you from making use of privileged information, contacts and influence gained from your recent time in ministerial office to the unfair advantage of Carne Group.

The Committee advises, under the government’s Business Appointment Rules, that your appointment with Carne Group Fund Managers Limited be subject to the following conditions:

• you should not draw on (disclose or use for the benefit of yourself or the persons or organisations to which this advice refers) any privileged information available to you from your time in ministerial service;

• for two years from your last day in ministerial service, you should not become personally involved in lobbying government or any of its arm’s length bodies on behalf of Carne Group Fund Managers Limited (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients); nor should you make use, directly or indirectly, of your contacts in government and/or Crown service to influence policy, secure business/funding or otherwise unfairly advantage Carne Group Fund Managers Limited (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients);

• for two years from your last day in ministerial service, you should not provide advice to Carne Group Fund Managers Limited (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients) on the terms of, or with regard to the subject matter of, a bid with, or contract relating directly to the work of the UK government and its arm’s length bodies.

The advice and the conditions under the government’s Business Appointment Rules relate to your previous role in government only; they are separate from rules administered by other bodies such as the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Registrar of Lords’ Interests^{[footnote 2]}. It is an applicant’s personal responsibility to understand any other rules and regulations they may be subject to in parallel with this Committee’s advice.

By ‘privileged information’ we mean official information to which a Minister or Crown servant has had access as a consequence of his or her office or employment and which has not been made publicly available. Applicants are also reminded that they may be subject to other duties of confidentiality, whether under the Official Secrets Act, the Civil Service Code or otherwise.

The Business Appointment Rules explain that the restriction on lobbying means that the former Crown servant/minister ‘should not engage in communication with government (ministers, civil servants, including special advisers, and other relevant officials/public office holders) – wherever it takes place – with a view to influencing a government decision, policy or contract award/grant in relation to their own interests or the interests of the organisation by which they are employed, or to whom they are contracted or with which they hold office.’

You must inform us as soon as you take up this role, or if it is announced that you will do so. You must also inform us if you propose to extend or otherwise change the nature of your role as, depending on the circumstances, it may be necessary for you to make a fresh application.

Once the appointment has been publicly announced or taken up, we will publish this letter on the Committee’s website, and where appropriate, refer to it in the relevant annual report.

Isabel Doverty

Interim Chair

ACOBA

4. Annex - Material information

4.1 The role

Carne Group is a leading provider of digitally driven solutions and services for the global asset management industry. It provides outsourced fund management solutions to asset managers and pension funds.

In your part-time role as advisor, you said that your role is helping Carne Group understand UK Pension Funds, and advising on how the market will consolidate and then invest in private markets.

You confirmed your role will not involve contact with government.

4.2 Dealings in office

You told the Committee that you did not meet with, nor were you involved in, decisions specific to Carne Group nor did you have access to sensitive information that could provide an unfair advantage to the organisation.

4.3 Departmental assessment

The DFT and DWP both confirmed the details you provided in your application above and recommended standard conditions.

1. This application for advice was considered by Isabel Doverty; Sarah de Gay; Hedley Finn OBE; Michael Prescott; and The Baroness Thornton. ↩

2. All Peers and Members of Parliament are prevented from paid lobbying under the House of Commons Code of Conduct and the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Lords. Advice on obligations under the Code can be sought from the Parliamentary Commissioners for Standards, in the case of MPs, or the Registrar of Lords’ Interests, in the case of peers. ↩