- Former gambling minister John Whittingdale earned £1,000 for an hour's work as an advisor for a consulting firm.
- He also earned £6,000 for two hours of work delivering a speech to the UK gambling lobby group.
- Whittingdale has not sought permission for any of the post-ministerial work he has done.
Former gambling minister John Whittingdale did not seek permission to work a £1,000-per-hour job at a consulting firm, and gave a speech that earned him £3,000 an hour to the UK's gambling lobby group.
Whittingdale was media minister at the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport until September 2021. Among his responsibilities was the gambling industry, which faces legal reforms in a review launched in December 2020.
The ministerial code says that for two years after departing office, Whittingdale must seek permission from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) for any post-ministerial employment or appointments, unless they are "one-off" activities, including speeches.
Consultancy work is specifically mentioned as a matter ACOBA needs to consider. But Insider has established that Whittingdale has not made an application to ACOBA for his work with the AlphaSights consulting firm.
Whittingdale declared earnings of £458.33 for an hour's work in November 2021 giving advice on the UK economy, and £1,000 for an hour's work in January 2022 giving advice on UK consumer issues.
Whittingdale also earned £6,000 for two hours' work delivering a speech to the Betting and Gaming Council, the UK's gambling lobby group. His post-ministerial work was first highlighted by the blogger Alex May.
Whittingdale told Insider his consultancy work was organised via AlphaSights "with different clients of theirs and different topics."
He said he was "not employed by AlphaSights which is a leading professional consultancy which holds all contributors to the highest standards — including a prohibition on asking for, or contributing privileged information."
Whittingdale was secretary of state at DCMS from May 2015 to July 2016.
Between July 2016 and February 2020, when he became a junior DCMS minister, he earned more than £4,000 from AlphaSights for nearly nine hours of work.
Whittingdale declared that the advice was on issues including those covered by DCMS, such as the "state of UK media industry and regulatory issues" and "the tourism industry."
Whittingdale did not seek permission from ACOBA for any of this work.
While Whittingdale's speech to the Betting and Gaming Council falls within the exemption for one-off activities, reports of the speech suggest he may have referred to privileged information available to him while in office — which would be a breach of the rules.
For example, according to one report of his speech, Whittingdale said he "was very much aware that firstly the evidence that advertising leads to an increase in problem gambling is pretty much nonexistent. Some have argued that it does but certainly the assessments I have seen showed no linkage."
Whittingdale told Insider: "My reference to assessments and evidence related entirely to academic studies and Gambling Commission analysis, all of which is in the public domain."
In a June 2021 answer to a parliamentary question, Whittingdale, who was minister at the time, said his department had received approximately 16,000 submissions to the Gambling Review, which was then being considered ahead of the publication of conclusions.
Transparency records show Whittingdale met with the Betting and Gaming Council on six occasions between March and August 2021, including for two meetings with no other groups present. The records say the meetings were to discuss the gambling review.
Campaigners say reports of Whittingdale's speech suggest he was "virtually reading from the script" of the gambling lobby.
Matt Zarb-Cousin, director of Clean Up Gambling, told Insider: "As we build up to the conclusion of the gambling review process, the betting lobby is desperate to look after the few friends it has in Parliament. But it leaves a bad taste that John Whittingdale, who was the gambling minister during part of this process, would be so willing to accept payments from the betting lobby while virtually reading from their script."
Whittingdale told Insider: "No breach of the Ministerial Code is involved since I was no longer a Minister at the time of any of these engagements."