ir Gavin Williamson allegedly took a job worth £ 50,000 a year as an adviser to a private education company – less than a year after leaving the role of education secretary.
Sir Gavin was Minister of Education from July 2019 to last September. The new role will make him a board member of the Regent Advisory Panel, part of the RTC Education company.
The company describes itself as an “education, property management and investment organization that owns and manages independent schools, higher education colleges and an investment business”.
According to The Guardian, the former education minister will earn about £ 50,000 a year from his second job.
As Secretary of State for Education, you may have access to sensitive information that could be of unfair advantage to RTC or any organization operating in the education sector.
Sir Gavin has twice been sacked as a cabinet minister and oversaw the exam failure in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The former minister has been given the green light to take on the role by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), an anti-corruption watchdog that advises on post-ministerial posts and is chaired by Lord Pickles.
Last year, a great deal of anger was called for a reform of the rules around second posts for MPs, before the government finally came to the conclusion that it would be impractical to place a restriction on other sources of employment.
Acoba, who has been repeatedly branded as toothless and lacks enforcement powers, did set certain conditions for the acceptance of the role by Sir Gavin and noted the short period between him leaving the government and taking on the role.
“There is an overlap with your work and responsibilities as the Secretary of State for Education and this role in the education sector,” according to Acoba.
“RTC has an interest group relationship with your former department as it is an education provider, although you did not meet with RTC while in office and the Department of Education confirmed that you have not made any decisions specifically to RTC Education Ltd or its competitors, “the committee noted.
It further concluded that there is only a “limited” risk that Sir Gavin may have access to sensitive information that could benefit RTC Education.
“As Secretary of State for Education, you may have access to sensitive information that could be unfair to RTC or any organization working in the education sector.
“This risk is limited as eight months have passed since you left office and the DfE considered that the information you had access to would no longer be up to date enough to be useful to the organization; with policies that continue significantly under the new foreign minister or that have already been made public. ”
The watchdog, when giving his approval to Sir Gavin to take up the role, stressed that the former education secretary should not make use of any privileged information available from his time in office, while for two years from his last day as minister should not be. personally involved in the support of the Government on behalf of RTC Education.
It also imposed other conditions related to solicitation and the provision of advice.
Sir Gavin, as well as RTC Education, were approached for comment.