Andrew Lansley, the former health secretary, has taken on three more private sector jobs, including advising a pharmaceuticals firm at the centre of a row over the price it charges the NHS for cancer drugs.
Despite David Cameron’s promise in 2010 to end the “revolving door” between Whitehall and the private sector, the recently ennobled Tory peer has declared work as an adviser to Roche, the Swiss drugs company, and as an adviser to private equity firm Blackstone on investments in the health sector.
Roche has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the cancer drugs fund that Lansley set up in 2010 to pay for life-extending medicines that were considered too expensive by the NHS.
His work involves advising on “pharmaceutical supply and pricing issues in Europe” until the end of November, according to his House of Lords register of interests.
A controversy broke out in September when it emerged that the company’s breast cancer drug, Kadcyla, was to be dropped by the fund because of the £90,000 per patient per year price – although Roche claimed it was closer to £70,000. A deal has since been struck to bring the cost down to £60,000, allowing it to remain on the fund’s list.
Lansley, who is considered the architect of the coalition’s controversial NHS changes that critics say have led to greater privatisation, is also giving “advice on industry” to Blackstone, which was criticised for its previous ownership of Southern Cross care homes, which failed under a mountain of debt in 2011 five years after being sold by the company.
A letter approving the Blackstone job from the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba) says Lansley’s work would be in “assessing value in investment opportunities, primarily in healthcare, working approximately two days per month”.
A third role is acting as an adviser to the chair and executive director of UKActive, a fitness industry trade body that counts Coca-Cola as one of its sponsors and has a representative of the drinks company on its board. Lansley chaired the group’s national conference last week, which was attended by government ministers.
Tanni Grey-Thompson, the paralympian and chair of UKActive, defended its links to Coca-Cola in response to media criticism in October, saying it would work with anyone who had a role to play in getting “more people, more active, more often”.
In October, it emerged Lansley has also taken up work advising corporate clients on innovation in healthcare for management consultants Bain & Company, as well as working for a consultancy set up by his wife called Low Associates for which he would provide “expertise on competition, economic regulation, health and social care, local government and the communications industry”.
Lansley told the Guardian that none of the roles involved lobbying the government and all had been notified to Acoba. The Tory peer has taken on the private sector work since stepping down as an MP at May’s election.
ACOBA said it had approved the roles at Bain and Blackstone in July and UKActive and Low Associates in June, subject to a two-year ban on lobbying starting from his last day as a minister in 2014 and on condition that he did not draw on privileged information that was available to him when in government. It is understood Lansley had mentioned the work for Roche in correspondence with Acoba.
Lansley became health secretary in 2010 and was replaced by Jeremy Hunt in 2012 shortly after the British Medical Association (BMA) voted in favour of his resignation and staged a day of action against the government’s NHS pensions reform. He then became leader of the House of Commons.
Cameron attempted to ensure that Lansley became the next UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief this year, but his efforts were thwarted. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, announced he would appoint the former UK international development minister, Stephen O’Brien.