Decision

Advice: Lee Rowley, Researcher/Policy Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies

Published 18 November 2025

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: Lee Rowley, former Minister of State, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – Paid appointment as Researcher/Policy Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies.

Thank you for your application, under the Government’s Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers (the Rules), for my advice on joining the Centre for Policy Studies as Researcher/Policy Fellow.

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 the Centre for Policy Studies (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 Centre for Policy Studies (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 Centre for Policy Studies (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 the Centre for Policy Studies (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.

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 wish to take up a paid, part-time role as a Researcher/Policy Fellow with the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), a thinktank. CPS produces policy papers on various issues, including housing. The role will include research, interviews, report writing, presentations and promotion. It may involve writing a paper on how government works and, to do so, requesting access to official papers from your time as a minister via your former department, now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). You confirmed you will liaise with MHCLG to ensure no sensitive information is published.

You also confirmed you will not lobby government in this role.

2.2 Dealings in office

You said that, as a minister, you did not make any policy, regulatory or commercial decisions specific to CPS, and you had no access to information that could grant the organisation an unfair advantage.

You said you worked alongside a CPS policy fellow while in office. You also said that CPS will have had regular interactions with departments you served and that you may have had formal meetings with CPS on housing – as is common for thinktanks.

2.3 Departmental assessment

MHCLG confirmed the details you provided and added that, due to the change in government since you left office, it considered your policy insights would not offer CPS an unfair advantage. MHCLG had no concerns and recommended the standard conditions.

2.4 My consideration of the risks

During your time in office, you made no policy, regulatory or commercial decisions specific to CPS, and MHCLG had no concerns over your access to privileged information – the risks here are therefore limited.

As a thinktank, CPS will have an interest in government policy. You have been clear the role will not include lobbying, but there remains a risk you could be perceived to offer CPS unfair access to government, particularly as you expect to have contact in the role. However, this risk is limited because:

• The role is focused on research and does not constitute lobbying.
• Your contact with government to request papers from your time as minister is narrowly defined and provided for under the Ministerial Code (paragraph 5.10).

I consider it of significant relevance that CPS has provided written confirmation of its agreement to comply with the advice and the separation of your role from lobbying.

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