Decision

Advice: David Cameron, Visiting Professor and Honorary Member of the President's Global Council, New York University

Published 21 January 2026

The advice below was considered and provided by ACOBA before it closed on 12 October 2025, but taken up by the applicant on or after 13 October and therefore published after the ACOBA’s closure. The Independent Adviser has not had a role in this advice.

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: The Rt Hon The Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, former Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs. Paid appointment with New York University.

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 appointment you wish to take up with New York University (NYU), as a Visiting Professor and Honorary Member of the President’s Global Council.

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 NYU, as the former Foreign Secretary. 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

NYU is a higher education institution in the USA. It has campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. Your role will be as a visiting professor to teach a course at the Abu Dhabi campus during the January term entitled Practicing Politics in the Age of Disruption, and to further support NYU in the US and internationally as an Honorary Member of the President’s Global Council; and to undertake occasional speaking engagements.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) confirmed that you did not meet with NYU, nor were you involved in any decisions specific to NYU in office. The Committee^{[footnote 1]} considered the risk that this appointment could reasonably be perceived as a reward for decisions or actions taken in office was low.

As the former Foreign Secretary, it is likely that you had access to a range of sensitive information from across government that would benefit any organisation. The risks with your broad access to information are limited by the public-facing nature of this role, that the FCDO is unaware of any access to any information that would likely grant an unfair advantage, and that you have been out of office for 13 months. 

There are inherent risks associated with any former ministers’ contacts in government. These are significantly limited in this case given that the role is academic, with no involvement in NYU’s commercial activities, and you will have no involvement with the UK government.

The Committee considered it relevant that you are returning to a role you held in January 2023, prior to re-entering government as Foreign Secretary. 

3. The Committee’s advice 

The Committee did not consider this appointment raises any particular propriety concerns under the government’s Rules, provided it is subject to the standard conditions. These make clear that you must not make use of your access to privileged information, contacts or influence gained from your time in ministerial office to the unfair benefit of NYU.

The Committee advises, under the government’s Business Appointment Rules, that your role with New York University should 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 government or its arm’s length bodies on behalf of New York University (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 New York University, including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients); and

• for two years from your last day in ministerial office, you should not provide advice to New York University (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 government or 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]} You are reminded that as a Member of the House of Lords you are prevented from any paid lobbying under the House of Lords Code of Conduct. 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 seek advice if you propose to extend or otherwise change the nature of your role.

Once the appointment has been publicly announced or taken up, this advice letter will be published.

Isabel Doverty

Interim Chair

ACOBA

4. Annex - Material Information

4.1 The role

NYU is a higher education institution in America. It has campuses in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Shanghai, China. Your paid, part-time role as a visiting professor and Honorary Member of President’s Global Council will include the following:

• teaching a course during the January term at NYU Abu Dhabi on Practicing Politics in the Age of Disruption;
• supporting NYU in the US and internationally as an Honorary Member of the President’s Global Council (which will have minimal duties);
• occasional speaking opportunities on behalf of the university;
• no contact with government. 

You said you had previously held this same role in January 2023, and were preparing to do so again in January 2024, though this was paused due to your return to government as Foreign Secretary. Therefore, this is a resumption of a previous role, rather than a new engagement.

4.2 Dealings in office 

You said that you did not meet with NYU in office, you did not make any decisions specific to it, and that you did not have access to any information that could grant an unfair advantage. 

You said that upon returning to government service in November 2023 your prior association with NYU was declared to the Permanent Secretary at the FCDO and to the Prime Minister’s Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards.

4.3 Departmental assessment 

The FCDO confirmed the information provided in your application. 

The FCDO said that you would have had routine meetings with domestic and international academic institutions in your role as Foreign Secretary, and that although it does not have a direct relationship with NYU, it is highly likely that some of its US posts had contact with the university. 

The FCDO recommended standard conditions.

1. This application for advice was considered by Sarah de Gay; Isabel Doverty; Hedley Finn OBE; Dawid Konotey-Ahulu CBE DL; 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 your obligations under the Code can be sought from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, in the case of MPs, or the Registrar of Lords’ Interests, in the case of peers. ↩