A former Downing Street director of economic policy has been given a shorter-than-usual exclusion period for lobbying the government in his new job because he only worked at No.10 for seven months, it has emerged.
Tim Pitt took up his new role as head of UK public policy at Bank of America in January this year, after leaving No.10 in May 2024.
Anti-corruption rules normally require former ministers, senior civil servants and special advisers to wait two years before lobbying the government on behalf of their new bosses. But correspondence from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments shows that the watchdog agreed to a reduced restriction period of 14 months in Pitt's case, because of the short period of time he worked at No.10.
Acoba’s decision letter said the rules allow it “to vary the length of conditions applied” and made reference to similar decisions being made in relation to special advisers who served for a matter of weeks during the political turmoil of summer 2022.
Its decision letter endorsing Pitt’s new role at BoA, which is the second-largest US banking institution – and the second-largest in the world by market capitalisation – said there were “circumstances specific” to his application that warranted similar flexibility.
“The committee applies conditions for two years unless there are exceptional reasons to do otherwise," it said. “The circumstances here are significantly different, but are unusual given that Mr Pitt was in government for only seven months and he seeks to continue in the government affairs profession he was in for the four years prior to joining No.10.”
It adds: “There are limited risks associated with his time in office given the significant movement in economic policy and the change in government. The Cabinet Office recommended that the conditions should apply for a period of 14 months, which is twice his time in government service at No.10.
"The committee agreed that any suspicion Mr Pitt would be providing an unfair advantage, or unfairly influencing the government, as a result of the seven months he spent in No.10 could reasonably fall away within 14 months, significantly longer than he was in post.”
Acoba’s requirements include Pitt not drawing on privileged information from his time in Crown service; not becoming personally involved in lobbying the UK government or any of its agencies for 14 months from his last day in Crown service; and not advising BoA on bids for government contracts over the same period.
According to Cabinet Office transparency data, Pitt’s salary during his time at No.10 was bracketed at £125,000-£129,999 a year.
Prior to taking up his No.10 role in October 2023, Pitt was a partner at the Flint Global consultancy – founded by former Foreign and Commonwealth Office permanent secretary Sir Simon Fraser.
Before that, Pitt held several special adviser roles in government from June 2015 to September 2019. He was previously a Conservative Party adviser.
Pitt’s profile on the networking site LinkedIn (below) currently suggests he was an adviser at No.10 for slightly more than seven months – from October 2023 to July 2024.
Part of Tim Pitt's LinkedIn page, at the time of publication