Decision

Advice: Tom Pursglove, commission with HSEnergy Group Ltd under Ascalane Partners Ltd

Published 11 November 2025

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: Tom Pursglove, former Minister of State for Legal Migration and the Border, the Home Office, and previously Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, Department for Work and Pensions – Paid commission with HSEnergy Group Ltd under the independent consultancy, Ascalane Partners Ltd

Thank you for your application, under the Government’s Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers (the Rules), for my advice on taking up a commission with HSEnergy Group Ltd under your independent consultancy, Ascalane Partners Ltd (Ascalane).

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, as applied to Ascalane, 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 HSEnergy Group 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 the HSEnergy Group 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 the HSEnergy Group 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 HSEnergy Group 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 HSEnergy Group 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 stated this is a client commission under your independent consultancy, Ascalane Partners Ltd (Ascalane), which provides advice to clients across several areas, including UK public policy, regulatory developments and the broader political landscape and on which the former Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) provided advice.

In this commission, you wish to advise HSEnergy Ltd (HSEnergy), a UK renewable energy solutions provider, on matters including UK public policy, regulatory developments, the political landscape and business development. This is broadly consistent with the description of Ascalane that you provided to ACOBA.

You confirmed that, in this commission, you would not:

• lobby government ministers or officials or have any government engagement on HSEnergy’s behalf

• disclose privileged information from your time in government

• seek to draw on your network of contacts in government

• have involvement with bids or contracts involving government.

2.2 Dealings in office

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

2.3 Departmental assessment

The Home Office (HO) and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed the details you provided.

DWP added that you would have discussed support for disabled people with energy bills, but this would have little to no link to this proposed commission.

HO and DWP recommended the standard conditions.

2.4 My consideration of the risks

You made no policy, regulatory or commercial decisions specific to HSEnergy, and HO and DWP have no concerns over your access to privileged information – this limits the risks.

As with any former minister, there are risks associated with your contacts and influence within government – with the potential for HSEnergy to gain unfair access as a result.

You confirmed the work of Ascalane and of this commission with HSEnergy excludes any government contact – the risk here is therefore limited.

Your commission involves developing HSEnergy’s business. There is a risk that you use contacts outside of government that were acquired only as a result of your time in office to advantage HSEnergy unfairly.

I have therefore applied a condition preventing you from lobbying such contacts to secure business – this is consistent with the conditions applied to Ascalane.

In view of the above factors, I consider the risks related to this appointment to be appropriately mitigated by the same conditions as apply to Ascalane.