Annex
Information relating to Lord Birt's appointment
as the Prime Minister's Strategy Adviser
Information contained in a letter dated
5 October 2001 from the Principal Private Secretary to the Prime
Minister to Lord Birt relating to his appointment as the Prime
Minister's Strategy Adviser
STRATEGY ADVISER TO THE PRIME MINISTER
The Prime Minister has asked me to confirm his
invitation to you to take up a role as his strategy adviser.
The Prime Minister will be looking to you for
confidential advice on the long term strategic issues facing government.
Initially has asked you to lead work on three forward looking
reviews focusing on transport, health and education.
He would like you to oversee these three reviews
and to lead personally the review on transport. The reviews on
education and health will be led by independent advisers who will
be members of the Forward Strategy Unit's advisory panel. Each
review area will be guided by a steering group which he would
like you to chair.
The Prime Minister is expecting the first reports
at the end of November; and results of any further work to be
available to inform the Spending Review by February. In the interim,
it will also be helpful to have meetings from time to time so
that you can brief him on progress and share developing thinking.
He would also like you to continue working with David Blunkett
on carrying forward the recommendations of your Crime Review.
Your appointment will be for up to three years
and will be reviewed on an annual basis. As you know, this is
a personal appointment and carries no remuneration, although there
are arrangements to reimburse you for reasonable expenses.
This letter also confirms the wider terms of
your appointment, which are designed to support the highest standards
of integrity in public life. In the main, these arrangements are
focused on maintaining confidentiality, where necessary, and on
avoiding any conflict of interests with other work in which you
may be involved.
On the confidentiality front, the advice you
give will be private to the Prime Minister and relevant Secretaries
of State. As I know you appreciate, this means that you will need
to take special care to ensure that the content of work is kept
entirely confidential.
Additionally, you will have access to Government
papers with a protective marking up to "confidential",
which will be subject to the normal Civil Service rules on confidentiality.
This means exercising care in the use of official information
which you may acquire during the course of your work and not disclosing
without the authorisation of the Prime Minister information which
is held in confidence. You will also be subject to the provisions
of the Official Secrets Act.
In terms of issues around conflicts of interests,
I know you are aware that it is crucially important to identify
any potential areas where such conflicts, either real or perceived,
could arise between your business interests and your work for
the Prime Minister. I should be grateful therefore if you could
let me know of any such potential areas (other than those of which
you have already notified me) and to keep this in mind throughout
your appointment, taking care to avoid using information acquired
during the course of your work to further your private interests
or the interests of others.
Your appointment will not in itself affect or
inhibit the rights of any organisation or others with whom you
are linked to tender for work for Government departments or agencies,
although you would not be permitted to give advice on or be involved
in the preparation or delivery of such work in areas where you
might have acquired knowledge through your role as adviser, both
during the period of your appointment and for six months after
it has elapsed. Additionally, for a further period of six months
after that (until 12 months in total after you complete your work
with the Unit), I should be grateful if you could consult me about
any such work in which you might wish to become involved. This
would include taking up any outside job or other work where experience
or information gained as a result of your appointment as an adviser
is likely to be relevant. As an indication of the approach we
would be following in assessing any such application, you may
find it helpful to look again at the Business Appointment Rules
which apply to civil servants.
As a member of the House of Lords, you are of
course free to speak on any matter you choose. However, as I am
sure you will appreciate, it will be important to be careful in
making any public or attributable statements which could be interpreted—or
might be perceived by some—as being based on preferential
knowledge or representing Government policy. Before making any
statement related to your work as strategy adviser, it would therefore
be helpful if you would consult the Prime Minister first.
You will be supported in this work by the Prime
Minister's new Forward Strategy Unit, under the direction of Geoff
Mulgan. A secretariat will provide support to the review programme,
and will include providing you with the support you will need.
However, you will not have management responsibility for any civil
servants or access to papers relating to civil servants personally.
I should be grateful if you could confirm acceptance
of the terms of this letter and its annex.
Finally, there will be an opportunity to review
how well these arrangements are working in the course of your
appointment. We are developing some general assessment arrangements
for independent advisers across government, and would be grateful
if you would participate in these as appropriate. Broadly they
will be designed to give the opportunity to assess in the round
how individual arrangements are working; and will provide you
with a clear opportunity to discuss these. The Prime Minister
looks forward to seeing the work that will come out of this important
new venture and is very grateful for the help you have offered
to give us in this way.
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