A five-year ban on former ministers lobbying their own department, with real enforcement

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) is a fig leaf. It has no statutory powers. It can be ignored, and regularly is. When a former minister takes a lobbying role that touches their old brief, the committee issues a polite letter. Nothing else happens.

The Greensill affair demonstrated what this looks like in practice. A former Prime Minister lobbied the Treasury on behalf of a financial services firm that collapsed owing billions, and the existing rules were inadequate to prevent, deter, or properly investigate it. The subsequent reviews recommended stronger rules. The rules were not strengthened.

Impose a statutory five-year lobbying ban on any former Secretary of State or Minister of State, preventing them from accepting any role that involves direct contact with their former department on matters they handled in office. Breaches to be criminal offences, investigated by an independent commissioner with proper powers of disclosure.

This is not a radical proposal. It is weaker than the equivalent rules in France. It is the minimum required to restore public trust. Trust, once lost, takes decades to rebuild. We should stop burning it for the sake of a few consultancy fees.