Decision

Advice letter: Nick Markham, Non Executive Director, Penneys Gib Ltd

Published 11 November 2025

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: The Lord Markham CBE, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Health and Social Care – Paid appointment as Non Executive Director with Penneys Gib Ltd

Thank you for your application, under the Government’s Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers (the Rules), for my advice on joining Penneys Gib Ltd as a non-executive director.

The purpose of the Rules, as you will be aware, is to protect the integrity of government and to avoid any suspicion that those who have served in government might profit improperly from that experience or that an employer might gain unfair advantage through privileged access to government. To achieve these aims, I designate conditions that former ministers must follow.

The material information and my consideration are set out in the annex. In light of this, I consider the following conditions to be appropriate, recognising that it is your responsibility to ensure that these are demonstrably applied in practice:

• Privileged information condition – You should not draw on (disclose or use for the benefit of Penneys Gib Ltd, including its related parties and clients) any privileged information available to you from your time in ministerial office. This is an ongoing duty irrespective of the time elapsed since you left office.

• Lobbying condition – For two years from your last day in office, you should not become personally involved in lobbying the UK Government or its arm’s length bodies on behalf of Penneys Gib Ltd (including its related parties and clients); nor should you make use, directly or indirectly, of your contacts in the government and/or ministerial office to influence policy, secure business/funding or otherwise unfairly advantage Penneys Gib Ltd (including its related parties and clients).

• Contracts and bids condition – For two years from your last day in office, you should not undertake any work with Penneys Gib Ltd (including its related parties 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 arm’s length bodies.

• Business development restriction - For two years from your last day in office, you should not become personally involved in lobbying contacts you acquired during your time in office in other governments and organisations for the purpose of securing business for Penneys Gib Ltd (including its related parties and clients).

I would be grateful if you would note the following points:

• My advice is not an endorsement of the appointment.

• The advice relates solely to your previous role in government; it is 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. It is your personal responsibility to understand any other rules and regulations you may be subject to in parallel with my advice.

• By ‘privileged information’, I mean official information to which you had access as a consequence of holding office and which is not publicly available. You are also reminded that you may be subject to other duties of confidentiality, whether under the Official Secrets Act, the Ministerial Code or otherwise.

• As set out in the Rules, the lobbying restriction means that former ministers ‘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’.

As soon as you take up the appointment, or if it is announced that you will do so, you are obliged under the Rules to inform my secretariat who will then publish this letter. 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.

Yours sincerely,

Sir Laurie Magnus CBE

Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards

2. Annex – Material information and consideration of the risks

2.1 The role

You said that Penneys Gib Ltd (Penneys Gib) is an investment company to manage your family’s assets. It will invest in properties, publicly quoted equities and trading opportunities.

You said, as Non-Executive Director, you will own the business and be responsible for setting it up. You said that you will have no contact with government in this role.

2.2 Dealings in office

Penneys Gib is a new company. You said that, as a minister, you made no policy, regulatory or commercial decisions specific to Penneys Gib, and had no access to information that could grant it an unfair advantage.

2.3 Departmental assessment

DHSC confirmed that you made no policy, regulatory or commercial decisions specific to Penneys Gib.

DHSC said that your ministerial portfolio may have given you access to information which could have been used to secure investments. However, given the passage of time and the change in government since you left office, DHSC is confident that the privileged information you had access to would no longer offer Penneys Gib an unfair advantage.

2.4 My consideration of the risks

As you made no policy, regulatory or commercial decisions specific to Penneys Gib, and DHSC has no concerns over your access to privileged information, the risks are limited.

You said that you will have no contact with government in this role. The risks of being perceived as offering unfair access are low and appropriately mitigated by the standard lobbying condition.

You will likely have a wide network of contacts from before you entered government. However, in respect of contacts in the private sector acquired only as a result of your role as a minister, there remains a risk you could be seen to gain an unfair advantage by drawing on such contacts for investment opportunities.