Decision

Advice Letter: Mark Jenkinson, Charity Trustee, Workington Heritage Group Ltd

Updated 1 July 2025

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: Mark Jenkinson, former Assistant Government Whip in the House of Commons. Unpaid appointment with Workington Heritage Group Ltd.

You sought advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (the Committee) under the government’s Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers (the Rules) on an unpaid role with Workington Heritage Group Ltd (Workington Heritage Group) as a Charity Trustee.

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 made during your time in office, alongside the information and influence you may offer Workington Heritage 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

When considering this application, the Committee^{[footnote 1]} took into account this appointment as Charity Trustee is unpaid.^{[footnote 2]} Generally, the Committee’s experience is that the risks related to unpaid roles are limited. The purpose of the Rules is to protect the integrity of the government by considering the real and perceived risks associated with former ministers joining outside organisations. Those risks include: using privileged access to contacts and information to the benefit of themselves or those they represent. The Rules also seek to mitigate the risks that individuals may make decisions or take action in office to in expectation of rewards, on leaving government. These risks are significantly limited in unpaid cases due to the lack of financial gain to the individual.

There are inherent risks associated with any former minister’s access to information, network of contacts and influence in government. It is significant that there is no known overlap between your ministerial responsibilities and your proposed role with Workington Heritage Group, and you will not have any contact with government.

The Committee also considered it significant that you are returning to this role, which you held between 2012 and 2019, prior to entering government.

3. The Committee’s advice

The Committee did not consider this appointment raises any particular concerns under the government’s Business Appointment Rules. Whilst there are inherent risks associated with your access to sensitive information and contacts, the standard conditions below, preventing you from drawing on your privileged information and using your contacts to the unfair advantage of Workington Heritage Group, will sufficiently mitigate in this case.

Therefore, in accordance with the government’s Business Appointment Rules, the Committee advises this appointment with Workington Heritage Group Ltd 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 office;

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

• for two years from your last day in ministerial office you should not undertake any work with Workington Heritage Group Ltd (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients) that involves providing advice 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 or its arms’ 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 3]} 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.

You must inform us as soon as you take up employment with this organisation, or if it is announced that you will do so and we will publish this letter on our website. Any failure to do so may lead to a false assumption being made about whether you had complied with the Rules.

You must 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.

4. Annex - Material Information

4.1 The role

According to its website, Workington Heritage Group Ltd (Workington Heritage Group) is a charity that is composed of volunteers with the aim of preserving the heritage of Workington and running the Helena Thompson Museum. Through the museum, it interacts with the people of Workington and visitors to the area. This is achieved through presenting exhibitions and displays, interacting with visitors using museum artefacts and talks on different aspects of lifestyle as portrayed in the museum. Workington Heritage Group has active involvement in working on projects to improve and upgrade the buildings of the Helena Thompson Museum, as well as developing a range of activities taking place at the museum.

You wish to take up an unpaid role as a Charity Trustee at Workington Heritage Group. You said the following about your role:

• You would be a board member of a small local charity which is committed to the aim of preserving the heritage of Workington.

• The group is actively working on projects to improve, upgrade the buildings and develop the range of activities taking place at the Helena Thomspon museum.

You confirmed your role will not involve contact with, or lobbying of government.

4.2 Dealings in office

You said that you did not make any policy, regulatory or commercial decisions specific to Workington Heritage Group. You said that there was no known relationship between Workington Heritage Group and your former department, and that you had no contact with the organisation in your capacity as a minister. Departmental assessment

The Cabinet Office confirmed the details you provided and recommended the standard conditions.

1. This application for advice was considered by Andrew Cumpsty; Hedley Finn OBE; Sarah de Gay;  The Rt Hon Lord Eric Pickles; Michael Prescott; The Baroness Thornton and Mike Weir. Isabel Doverty and Dawid Konotey-Ahulu CBE DL were unavailable. ↩

2. By “unpaid” the Committee means that no remuneration of any kind is  received for the role.  Applicants must declare where it is agreed or anticipated they may receive remuneration or some other compensation at some stage in the future. ↩

3. 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. ↩