Alleged conflicts of interest

Contrary to the implication made by Private Eye, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that James Hall, Chief Executive of the Identity and Passport Service, and Bill Crothers, the Commercial Director, used to work for Accenture, and still hold shares in it.

At the levels of responsibility we are talking about there is bound to be some overlap between people, their new jobs, their old jobs, and their shares. What matters is how it is dealt with.  And that is a matter for those people alone.
Some people have also pointed out that James was responsible, when at Accenture, for a £2bn NHS contract, which went over schedule by three years, and caused £260m to be written off.  Well, all I can say is, that was iSoft’s fault, and let’s move on.