This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

David Cameron's former adviser on NHS privatisation is working for a lobbying firm with clients in the private health sector, a development which will provoke further concern about the revolving door from Whitehall to the lobbying industry.

Sean Worth, who was No 10's special adviser on health until June, became a part-time strategic adviser to MHP Communications last month.

The firm's clients include the Priory Group, which sells mental health care services to the NHS; Laing O'Rourke and Interserve, construction firms with hospital private finance initiative interests; and private equity firm Hg Capital, which owns care home operator Voyage Group.

The disclosure comes amid fears about the close relationship between senior Conservatives and the private health sector as £20bn worth of contracts have come on to the market following ongoing reforms. At least five former advisers to Cameron and chancellor George Osborne now work for lobbying firms with private health clients.

Before the general election, Cameron described lobbying as "the next big scandal waiting to happen", saying: "We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way."

Worth was a key figure in former health secretary Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms, and a former head of the Conservative policy unit before the election. He had a ringside seat in the first two years of Cameron's attempts to reform public services.

According to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), the body which decides if former top civil servants can take up lucrative private sector roles, Worth "will work with its public affairs practice, providing political counsel to some clients and in order to help to train MHP staff".

He is not allowed to "become personally involved in lobbying government on behalf of his new employer or its clients" until June, the committee said.

Worth was known as one of the brightest special advisers who entered Downing Street with Cameron. His resignation in June prompted some surprise among close observers of No 10 who believed that Cameron had lost one of his better members of staff.

Clearing Worth's appointments, the advisory committee said it "noted that Dr Worth had had no official dealings with his new employer".

However, in January 2011 the MHP client Priory Group and several other care home operators met Worth in Downing Street. In the same year, Downing Street gave Worth the task of helping to develop Lansley's NHS privatisation plans.

Contacted last week, Worth said he has not advised any of the healthcare companies – which are dealt with by another part of MHP – or been in contact with ministers, special advisers or civil servants since joining the company.

"I'm explicitly not employed to do any of that – my agreement with MHP specifically states that I am not employed to undertake any kind of lobbying of ministers, special advisers or officials – in line with the Cabinet Office's rules on post-government appointments," he said.

Worth said he worked for MHP a few days a month and had previously spoken out against some "trashy" lobbying firms, adding that lobbyists had a proper role to play in good government.

"Good comms and PR firms can help government and business understand each other better, which is essential, as long as it's open and constructive," he said.

Another former Downing Street aide has taken up a role as an executive for an organisation which represents outsourcing companies, including many with multimillion pound health contracts.

Peter Campbell, who worked as a special adviser in No 10 until September 2011, is now the senior corporate affairs officer at the Business Services Association, which represents outsourcing companies, including those involved in health.

He has been asked by a parliamentary committee not to become personally involved in lobbying ministers or civil servants for two years.

Campbell told a committee of MPs in March that he had been careful not to be personally involved in lobbying ministers or civil servants and that he was careful not to breach rules governing former special advisers.

The association also employs the lobbying firm Quiller where George Bridges, Cameron's former political director and an old Etonian, is a senior partner. The firm is owned by Huntsworth, whose chief executive is Lord Chadlington, the chairman of Cameron's constituency party and a major party donor.

Private health firms can expect to win business worth about £20bn from the NHS in the next few years by taking over GP surgeries and setting up new community health clinics, according to a report released in September.

Catalyst, the corporate finance advice firm which specialise in healthcare, wrote in a briefing that the contracts were a result of coalition policies and pressure on public finances.

Acoba has faced intense criticism over the past three years for failing to clamp down on outside appointments.

In July, the Commons public administration select committee recommended that Acoba be replaced by an independent ethics commissioner to create greater public trust amid fears about the "revolving door" relationship between Whitehall and industry. The committee found that the current system lacked adequate powers and resources and called for a new law to tighten the rules.

An analysis of Acoba's files has found that 213 senior civil servants have moved from government into the private health sector between 1996 to 2011.