Decision

Summary of business appointment applications - Dame Una O'Brien

Published 4 July 2018

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Dame Una O’Brien left her position at Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health in April 2016.

1. Non-Executive Director and trustee, Macmillan Cancer Support

The Committee was asked to consider an application from Dame Una O’Brien, former Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health, for advice on becoming a Non-Executive Director and trustee of Macmillan Cancer Support.

The Committee noted that Dame Una is proposing to take up a role in the same sector that her former Department had responsibility for. However, it concluded that this appointment does not give rise to reasonable concerns under the Government’s Business Appointment Rules. The post is unpaid; there is no evidence that Dame Una was formally involved in any decisions that would affect Macmillan; and the Department does not have any on-going commercial links with Macmillan. As a result the Committee had no concerns that this post could reasonably be perceived as a reward.

The Committee considered that the risk of the appointment unfairly benefiting Macmillan over other charities is also very low given the time that has lapsed since Dame Una left her post as Permanent Secretary in April 2016 (20 months will have passed by the time she takes up the board position in January 2018); because the Government’s policy on end of life care is public and because there are no on-going commercial links with the Department. Dame Una has said that she does not expect to have contact with Government in this role. However, given that influencing decision makers is part of Macmillan’s purpose, the Committee decided to mitigate the risk that it could be perceived that her contacts could provide Macmillan with an unfair advantage by recommending an extended lobbying ban that prohibits the use of contacts, whether direct or indirect, to influence policy or secure funding.

The Prime Minister accepted the Committee’s advice that, in accordance with the Government’s Business Appointment Rules, this appointment be subject to the following conditions:

  • she should not draw on (disclose or use for the benefit of herself or the organisations to which this advice refers) any privileged information available to her from her time in Crown service; and

  • for two years from her last day in Crown service, she should not become personally involved in lobbying the UK Government on behalf of Macmillan Cancer Support or make use, directly or indirectly, of her contacts in Government and/or Crown service to influence policy or secure funding on behalf of Macmillan Cancer Support.

The letter containing the Committee’s advice was sent in August 2017 and Dame Una took up the board appointment in January 2018.

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