The following Answer to an Urgent Question was given in the House of Commons on Monday 6 March.
“I can confirm that, following a media report the previous day, Sue Gray, formerly second Permanent Secretary to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and to the Cabinet Office, resigned from the Civil Service on Thursday 2 March. This resignation was accepted with immediate effect. On Friday 3 March, a statement from the Opposition announced that the Labour Party had offered Sue Gray the role of chief of staff to the leader of the Opposition.
The House will recognise that this is an exceptional situation. It is unprecedented for a serving Permanent Secretary to resign to seek to take up a senior position working for the leader of the Opposition. As honourable Members will expect, the Cabinet Office is looking into the circumstances leading up to Sue Gray’s resignation in order to update the relevant Civil Service leadership and Ministers of the facts. Subsequent to that, I will update the House appropriately.
By way of background, to inform honourable Members, there are four pertinent sets of rules and guidance for civil servants relating to this issue. First, under the Civil Service Code, every civil servant is expected to uphold the Civil Service’s core values, which include impartiality. The code states that civil servants must
‘act in a way which deserves and retains the confidence of ministers’.
Secondly, rules apply when very senior civil servants wish to leave the service. Permanent Secretaries are subject to the business appointments process that, for most senior leavers, is administered by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments. ACOBA provides advice to the Prime Minister, who is the ultimate decision-maker in cases involving the most senior civil servants. Once the Prime Minister agrees the conditions and the appointment is taken up, ACOBA publishes its letter to the applicant on its website.
The business appointment rules form part of a civil servant’s contract of employment. The rules state that approval must be obtained prior to a job offer being announced. The Cabinet Office has not, as yet, been informed that the relevant notification to ACOBA has been made.
Thirdly, civil servants must follow guidance on the declaration and management of outside interests. They are required, on an ongoing basis, to declare and manage any outside interests that may give rise to an actual or perceived conflict of interest. Finally, the directory of civil service guidance states:
‘Contacts between senior civil servants and leading members of the Opposition parties … should … be cleared with … Ministers.’
Having set out the relevant rules, I finish by saying that, regardless of the details of this specific situation, I understand why Members of this House and eminent outside commentators have raised concerns. The impartiality and perceived impartiality of the Civil Service is constitutionally vital to the conduct of government. I am certain that all senior civil servants are acutely aware of the importance of maintaining impartiality. Ministers must be able to speak to their officials from a position of absolute trust, so it is the responsibility of everyone in this House to preserve and support the impartiality of the Civil Service.”
My Lords, we have heard a lot of nonsense on this over the past few days. Over many years, Sue Gray has been praised by Ministers from all parties for her abilities and her impartiality. She is not unique in being offered a political role on leaving the Civil Service. For example, noble Lords will recall that the noble Lord, Lord Frost, left the diplomatic service to be a political advisor to the then Foreign Secretary before becoming a Minister in your Lordship’s House.
We have had a lot of heckling—I think we are getting a bit bad-tempered in the Chamber these days. I am happy to repeat what I said, in case anyone missed it.
It is not without precedent that a senior civil servant is offered a political role on leaving the Civil Service, but Sue Gray is certainly the first to be attacked in this way. She has had such a distinguished career, and I am appalled that some now impugn her integrity for the time that she served successive Governments. Surely we should welcome that the leader of His Majesty’s Official Opposition, in preparing for government, wants to employ someone with such impeccable credentials and integrity—or perhaps those kicking up a fuss just fear the appointment.
I will set out the facts from a slightly different perspective. Sue Gray, formerly Second Permanent Secretary at DLUHC and at the Cabinet Office, resigned from the Civil Service on Thursday. This resignation was accepted with immediate effect. Because it was unique—and I would say unprecedented—for a serving Permanent Secretary to resign to seek to take up a very senior position, that of Chief of Staff working for the leader of the Opposition, we are looking into the circumstances leading up to her resignation. However, it is incumbent on the office of the leader of the Opposition to be much more forthcoming about the details of what discussions were involved and the timing of those discussions so that we are able to complete our fact-finding exercise.
Ministers must be able to speak to their officials from a position of absolute trust. It is the responsibility of everyone in this House to preserve and support the impartiality of the Civil Service, and this step does the opposite.
My Lords, the Minister sometimes refers to the fact that at one time she used to work for me when she was a professional civil servant in the Cabinet Office. Does she agree that the appointment of Sue Gray to give professional assistance to the Opposition in preparing for the possibility of government throws no more doubt on the impartiality of the Civil Service than the noble Baroness’s very welcome presence on the Conservative Front Bench?
But, in my own case, I left to go to Tesco, where I served for 15 years. I then took a different path. I served as a civil servant with due impartiality and indeed confidentiality of everything that I did and learned there, and that will be a requirement for Ms Gray.