UK lobbying regulator investigating Philip Hammond
Former chancellor Philip Hammond is being probed by the UK’s lobbying regulator, after contacting a Treasury official on behalf of a bank he was working for.
The Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists is investigating whether Hammond should have disclosed his contact with senior Treasury mandarin Charles Roxburgh in July 2020.
Hammond was contacting Roxburgh, who worked under him at the Treasury, on behalf of OakNorth Bank and was offering access to the firm’s “Covid stress-testing toolkit” for assessing financial institutions.
The Financial Times reports that registrar Harry Rich is conducting the probe.
A spokesperson for The Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists said: “A case summary will be published once the investigation is complete.”
Current legislation mandates that people or organisations that lobby ministers and civil servants need to register with the office.
A spokesperson for Hammond said he did not need to register as he is only involved in “strategic development” and “the promotion of the bank to potential corporate clients” at the bank.
“His contact with HM Treasury…was purely incidental to his role as a member of the advisory board and therefore in accordance with…the registrar’s guidance was not registrable,” they said.
“There was clearly no requirement to register this contact under the rules and Lord Hammond looks forward to the registrar’s confirmation of that in due course.”
It comes after David Cameron was embroiled in a scandal over his lobbying activities for failed Greensill Capital earlier this year.
Cameron sent dozens of emails, texts and WhatsApps to senior civil servants in the Treasury and Bank of England as well as cabinet ministers to lobby on behalf of Greensill Capital in April last year.
The saga has shone a spotlight on the UK’s lobbying rules, with Labour arguing for tougher regulations.