Peer on board of healthcare firm attended meeting at which minister was lobbied

"If The Lords Code Is Ambiguous On These Kind Of Meetings, That Should Be Resolved"

- Rob Evans

A peer attended a meeting where a healthcare company of which he is a director lobbied a government minister, raising questions about whether this was within the rules of the House of Lords.

Jitesh Gadhia, an investment banker and City financier, is a non-executive director of Accord Healthcare. He attended the online meeting along with two Accord executives, according to official records, in 2021, when he was already on the board of the company.

An email shows Accord Healthcare, which sells a substantial amount of medicines to the NHS, wanted to use the meeting to get an update on a change in official policy.

It also wanted to discuss potentially securing millions of pounds in taxpayer grants for a manufacturing facility, assisting with the design of services and procurement contracts, and to ask if it could "contribute" to official working groups.

While there are grey areas in the rules of the House of Lords, they stated at the time that peers must not seek to profit from being a member of the chamber by accepting money in return for providing parliamentary advice or services.

The rules also stated that peers who had paid roles were not permitted to "assist outside organisations or persons in influencing members of either house, ministers or officials", and that they were banned from "making use of their position to lobby, or to help others to lobby" the government.

Those who did have paid roles had a "responsibility to maintain a clear distinction between their outside interests and their parliamentary work", the code of conduct stated. Later versions of the code reinforce these principles.