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Dozens of former public servants have joined private sector firms in fields that directly overlap with their past roles, opening up potential conflicts of interest.
A joint investigation by Tortoise and BBC Radio 4’s The Naked Week found at least 36 people who worked for technology regulators or government departments are now at some of the world’s largest tech and social media firms.
Lord Eric Pickles, who this week stepped down from revolving door watchdog Acoba, has criticised Whitehall’s failure to properly regulate the movement of civil servants into industry roles and warned that the system is “ready to blow”.
Six people have joined TikTok from Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office, taking up roles relating to public policy and data protection. Last month the ICO announced it was investigating how the platform uses data harvested from Britain’s teenagers.
A further five have joined TikTok from government departments, while Meta has hired at least seven people who used to work in the civil service or Ofcom.
It’s not just social media giants who are benefitting from government-related exits. The investigation identified 24 ex-civil servants who left the public sector and immediately joined PR and lobbying companies. These include five people who work for Stonehaven in positions that relate to policy areas from their previous public roles. The consultancy firm recently rescinded several job offers for peers following a backlash.
None of these roles would be scrutinised by Acoba, either because the bodies fall outside the watchdog’s remit or because the individual was not senior enough.
Eric Pickles said a “slapdash” approach to scrutinising the flows of public servants between the public and private sectors meant there was a lack of oversight despite the movements carrying “the same risk” as those posed by ex-ministers.
As well as social media, Pickles said he was particularly concerned about those working in procurement and other commercial roles.
In a series of recommendations, he suggests an “exit strategy should be worked out” to move officials off sensitive areas of work during their notice period. This would be strengthened by an “entry strategy” to avoid ambiguity from the start of a civil service role.
Pickles said he thought the problem was often a case of back-scratching. “I am rather irritated, in a restrained kind of way, by the entitlement of top civil servants,” he told Tortoise. “The existing cohort looks after the last one, on the assumption that the next one looks after them.”
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Civil servants are subject to Business Appointment Rules. We maintain close contact with all departments to provide guidance where needed and publish all advice given to senior civil servants who take up appointments outside of government.”
No one from TikTok, Meta, Google or Stonehaven responded to requests for comment.
Pickles, who this week stepped down from Acoba after five years, has been replaced on an interim basis by Isabel Doverty, who has held various senior HR roles in the private sector.
This is the latest in a series of investigations by Tortoise and BBC Radio 4’s The Naked Week, which is hosted by Andrew Hunter Murray.
To hear the full investigation, listen to The Naked Week, produced for BBC Radio 4 by Unusual Productions, on air every Friday from 18.30 on BBC Radio 4 and then on BBC Sounds in the Friday Night Comedy podcast feed.
Additional reporting by Freya Shaw and Matt Brown.
Photo credit: Alamy
