In one of his recent appearances in the House of Lords, Lord Deben said that he had put in place arrangements to ensure that his involvement in Veolia Water did not represent a conflict of interest for his position as head of the Committee on Climate Change.
This was intriguing and I decided to write to DECC to find out exactly what these steps were. Here's the response:
Lord Deben has informed DECC of the steps he has taken to guard against any conflict of interest, perceived or actual, with regard to Veolia Water UK.
He has explained that activities in relation to connection of electricity supplies are undertaken by a subsidiary of Veolia Water UK, Veolia Water Infrastructure Limited, which has a separate Board of Directors on which Lord Deben does not sit. Lord Deben has informed the Secretary of State that, while no matter in relation to the operations of this subsidiary has come before the main Board of Veolia Water UK during his tenure, he has now given instructions that he is not to be consulted on any matter connected with these operations, nor receive any papers were it to come before Veolia Water UK’s main board in future.
As the Energy and Climate Change Committee is aware the Department’s view is that there is not a conflict of interest in these circumstances.
This is truly bizarre. It is not the decisions taken within Veolia that are conflicted by Deben working in the CCC. It's exactly the other way round. He needs to ensure that as chairman of the CCC he is not consulted on anything that affects Veolia. Since pretty much everything that happens within the CCC potentially affects Veolia, his position seems to me to be untenable.
What's the next step, I wonder?