Tag Archives: Sajid Javid

Health secretary’s daughter works for consultant lobbyist engaging ministers and permanent secretaries on behalf of pharmaceutical companies

Posted on by
  1. The daughter of Sajid Javid MP, the health secretary, works for a consultant lobbyist that is engaging ministers and permanent secretaries on behalf of pharmaceutical companies.
  2. There is evidence Mr Javid was late registering an interest on the register of MPs’ financial interests.
  3. On 31 May 2022, Mr Javid made the following disclosure under Category 10 (family members engaged in lobbying): “My daughter, Sophia Javid, is an Account Executive at Hanover Communications.”
  4. However, Sophia Javid has been conducting public affairs activities for Hanover Communications since the quarter from 1 June 2021 until 31 August 2021, according to the PRCA Public Affairs Board register.
  5. It therefore appears Mr Javid was late registering his daughter’s job with the lobbying firm.
  6. Meanwhile, the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists defines consultant lobbying as lobbying of ministers and permanent secretaries on behalf of a third party, in return for payment.
  7. Hanover Communications currently has six such clients, according to the latest update of the statutory register of consultant lobbyists (January to March 2022): American Pharmaceutical Group; Bristol Myers Squibb; Infection Management Coalition; Lilly; Northern Health Science Alliance; and Valero.
  8. The first four are pharmaceutical companies or groups thereof. While the Northern Health Science Alliance, as its name suggests, is health-related: it is “a health and life sciences partnership between the leading NHS trusts, universities and Academic Health Science Networks in northern England”.
  9. Valero, by contrast, is a US energy company. It is “the largest independent petroleum refiner in the world and the world’s second largest renewable fuels producer”.
  10. Mr Javid as health secretary has a conflict of interest, actual, potential, or perceived, because his daughter works for a consultant lobbyist that is engaging ministers and permanent secretaries on behalf of both pharmaceutical companies and the North’s health sciences, which work closely with industry.
  11. The Department of Health and Social Care didn’t respond to requests for comment.
  12. A spokesperson for Hanover Communications said in an email: “Hanover abides by the PRCA Public Affairs Code, which covers disclosure of consultants and conflict of interest. Sophia does not work in our healthcare team, nor with any health and social care clients – to suggest otherwise is incorrect.”