THE latest business appointment data shows lobbying and consultancy businesses aiming to influence the government are also busy appointing former top civil servants from related departments.

The “business appointment rules” manage the revolving door for director and deputy director-level civil servants leaving their top government jobs for places in industry.

The rules are supposed to stop private companies from getting too much influence on the government by poaching these top insiders. Many corporations want to either win government contracts or change government regulations — and they have money to spend to help them do it.

Departments themselves set post-government conditions for these staff, not the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) which considers staff on higher levels. The latest returns, covering April-June 2022, but released at the end of September, show around a fifth of top leavers going to consultancies.

Andy Ray was HMRC’s deputy director working on “managing the tax affairs of some of Britain’s largest corporate businesses” and stopping “tax avoidance” — until June. In July he joined consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) as its “tax disputes director.”

PWC says Ray “will be part of the tax disputes network, helping businesses to effectively manage their interactions with HMRC.” HMRC put a “condition” on Ray’s new work — he must “not provide advice in your new role that draws on the knowledge and understanding gained from your participation in internal HMRC work that is still under development and/or not yet in the public domain.”

Vivienne Geard was the Department for Business and Energy’s deputy director, in charge of issues like carbon pricing and hydrogen policy.

Now she is an assistant director at consultants Ernst and Young (EY), offering clients advice on energy and resources. The Department for Business and Energy banned Geard from “directly or indirectly” using her government contacts to lobby for EY clients, with the get-out clause she could “interact” with the government for EY “on matters aligned with government policy” or for “building and maintaining any day-to-day relationships with the government.”

Huw Davies was the Britain’s deputy lead negotiator for 2021’s Cop26, held in Glasgow. This year he became senior adviser to the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the next UN climate change conference, Cop28. He seems to have kept a similar role but switched governments.

Simon Finkelstein was deputy prime minister Dominic Raab’s special adviser (Spad) until 2022. Now he is senior vice-president at lobbyists Edelman, that helps clients with “political and regulatory circles of influence” and “government engagement plans.”

Ed Oldfield, a Downing Street Spad on “broadcast,” left to re-join lobbying firm Hanbury Strategy, where he previously worked up to 2019, so his revolving door turned twice. Readers may remember Oldfield as the Spad caught joking with then-press secretary Allegra Stratton about Downing Street parties during Covid in a mock press conference last year.

The Cabinet Office banned Oldfield from lobbying for a year, which could be awkward working at a lobbying firm like Hanbury, which represents many City, drug, privatisation and big tech firms. Even other lobbying firms have attacked Hanbury’s close relationships with Number 10.

William Sweet was a Spad to foreign secretary Dominic Raab. Now he is a director at Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm Global Counsel where he works with investors (including ultra-rich families, private equity and hedge funds) to help them “mitigate policy, political and regulatory risk.”

Mandelson may be an adviser to Labour leader Keir Starmer, but he is always keen to hire top Tory insiders. The government says Sweet must not “draw upon any privileged information” and “refrain from lobbying government or its ministers” for two years. However, as with all the post-employment conditions listed above, there is no actual mechanism to enforce these theoretical rules.

Grenfell’s corporate legacy not too toxic for some MPs

In closing statements to the Grenfell inquiry, representatives of the victims of the fire said that a “rogues’ gallery” of firms that supplied or installed dangerous materials which contributed to the lethal blaze should be prosecuted.

Adrian Williamson KC, who represents some families, singles out Celotex, which made the combustible insulation, along with another manufacturer, Kingspan, saying it was “fraudulent in its sales tactics and in its dealings with those who were charged with testing and certifying the products.”

Celotex is owned by a French construction giant, St Gobain. St Gobain bought Celotex in 2013. Evidence at the Grenfell inquiry shows St Gobain pressured Celotex to increase profits by selling insulation for higher buildings.

St Gobain singled out Grenfell as a “must-win” project in 2014. Inquiry evidence says Celotex staff pushed its insulation in “dishonest and misleading” ways, including rigging a fire test.

St Gobain denies it is responsible for the fire, but given its role has been heavily questioned in the Grenfell inquiry since at least 2020, you might think our politicians would give it a wide berth.

The opposite is true. Saint Gobain helped fund an annual politics conference called the Anglo-French colloque. The conference is personally chaired by Pierre-Andre de Chalendar, the longstanding chairman of Saint-Gobain.

This year’s Colloque was a three-day event over the first weekend of July at Trianon Palace, a historic luxury hotel in Versailles. The colloque had 50 French and 50 British “delegates,” made up of politicians, corporate executives, lobbyists and some journalists. Debates take place over cocktails and dinners.

David Lammy, Yvette Cooper and Rushanara Ali all went to the conference (which was free to them, with funds coming from Saint Gobain and other corporations). So did Tories Liz Truss, Jeremy Hunt, Jessie Norman, Bim Afolami and Claire Coutinho. The Lib Dems supplied Ed Davey, and the SNP Joanna Cherry.

Guardian boss Kath Viner and Channel 4’s Matt Frei, and other news editors, also went to the Colloque, ironically making it less likely that top politicians going to a conference backed by a firm linked to the Grenfell disaster would be reported.