Be more upfront about sensitive shareholdings, civil servants urged
Civil servants should be more upfront about declaring their shares, said a former sleaze watchdog, after it emerged the UK’s chief scientist has a £600,000 holding in a drugs giant developing a Covid-19 vaccine for the Government.
Sir Alistair Graham, a former chair of the standards in public life committee, said officials should declare any financial interests publicly when speaking on any relevant government policy, and the ministers should do more to ensure the public are aware.
“I am in favour of full transparency, especially when you're talking about such critical contracts,” said Sir Alistair, whose committee advised the Prime Minister on ethical standards across the whole of public life in England.
“The public should be fully aware of this, and it is the Government’s duty to make sure the public are aware of it.”
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, admitted on LBC radio that he did not know about the chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance’s 43,111 deferred shares (worth £600,000) with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) from his time as president of the multinational drug company.
Sir Patrick chairs the Government’s expert advisory panel on vaccines and is closely involved in its vaccine taskforce but the Government said he has no role in commercial or contractual decisions relating to vaccines.
GSK and drugs multinational Sanofi agreed a deal with the Government in July to supply it with up to 60 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, subject to final contract and the progress of clinical trials which are due to start shortly.
The two drug companies have a similar deal with the US Government for an initial 100 million doses as part of Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed. The announcement of their partnership to develop a Covid-19 vaccine pushed up GSK’s share price by two per cent.
Asked about the disclosure of Sir Patrick’s shareholding in the Telegraph, Mr Hancock said: “I didn’t know about it until I read it in the newspapers.”
When asked if he felt that, as Health Secretary, he should have been made aware of it, he replied: “No, not particularly. I think there are rules around this and it’s very important that he abided by the rules.”
Mr Hancock denied there was a possible conflict of interest, saying: “There’s rules around these sorts of things and I’m sure that Sir Patrick is fully advised by them.”
Mr Hancock noted that one of the favourites for a vaccine, AstraZeneca was one of GSK’s biggest competitors. “Any suggestion that [Sir Patrick] is doing anything other than try his level best to tackle this virus, I think, is wrong,” he added.
Earlier this week at the televised briefing heralding the latest Covid crackdown (see video below), Sir Patrick predicted the first few doses of an effective Covid-19 vaccine might be available before the end of this year, but said it was far more likely any breakthrough will happen during the first six months of 2021.
A senior Tory MP said Sir Patrick should disclose his interest just as MPs have to when speaking in the Commons. “Every time he is talking about vaccines or on TV, he should put it on the table,” said the MP.
The only official reference to Sir Patrick’s GSK shareholding is on a register on the council for science and technology’s website register.
A Government spokesman said appropriate steps were taken to manage Sir Patrick’s interests in line with advice at the time he took up his post in March 2018.
He sold further GSK shares worth more than £5 million before starting his Government role or after a mandatory holding period.
The spokesman added: “The [chief scientific advisor] has no input into contractual and commercial decisions on vaccine procurement which are taken by ministers following a robust cross-Government approvals regime.”
