A former head of the UK spy agency GCHQ has been criticised by the panel that advises on new jobs for former ministers and senior civil servants for taking a new role without seeking its permission – but was then immediately approved for a second role.

Robert Hannigan, who earlier this year stepped down as the director of GCHQ, has launched a consultancy company and accepted a commission as head of the European advisory board for a new US cybersecurity firm, BlueteamGlobal.

However, he did not seek approval from the Advisory Commission for Business Appointments (Acoba) before this role was announced. The move contradicts the committee's rules for civil servants in the first two years after they leave public service.

"The Committee would like to register its concern that Mr Hannigan’s appointment with BlueteamGlobal was announced before the Committee had the opportunity to provide its advice," it said in a public letter to Hannigan.

"The Government’s Business Appointment Rules for former Crown servants specify that retrospective applications will not normally be accepted. To fulfil the remit given to it by Government, the Committee needs to be able to consider an application fully and freely before offering its advice.

"It is impossible to do this in a way that will command public confidence if an

appointment has already been announced and/or taken up. The Committee is therefore unwilling to give retrospective advice for this appointment."



The letter did note that the cabinet secretary had considered the role and had expressed no objection to Hannigan taking it up.

In the same letter reprimanding Hannigan for not consulting with Acoba, the committee granted permission for him to take up a second role advising the insurance company Hiscox on cybersecurity.

That decision came the same day as the Acoba committee also granted permission to former chancellor George Osborne to take a paid role as a visiting research fellow with Stanford University – his seventh appointment since being fired as chancellor by Theresa May.

In Osborne's case too the committee had previously issued a reprimand, for not seeking approval before his new role as editor of the London Evening Standard was publicly announced.

It told Osborne at the time: "However the Committee is very concerned that despite the press statement noting you were still seeking the Committee’s advice, you subsequently signed a contract of employment with the Evening Standard on 20 March – without having received the Committee’s advice. It was not appropriate for you to do so."

