Decision

Advice Letter: Tariq Ahmad, Advisor, King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence

Published 30 April 2025

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon KCMG, former Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, United Nations, and the Commonwealth. Paid appointment with the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence

You sought advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (the Committee) under the government’s Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers (the Rules) on your role as Advisor with the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence (the KHC), which is affiliated with the Kingdom of Bahrain, and supervised by Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The purpose of the Rules is to protect the integrity of the government. The Committee has considered the risks associated with the actions and decisions you made during your time in office, alongside the information and influence you may offer the KHC as a former minister at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The material information taken into consideration by the Committee is set out in the annex.

The Committee’s advice is not an endorsement of the appointment- it imposes a number of conditions to mitigate the potential risks to the government associated with the appointment under the Rules.

The Rules[1] set out that former ministers must abide by the Committee’s advice. It is an applicant’s personal responsibility to manage the propriety of any appointment. Former ministers are expected to uphold the highest standards of propriety and act in accordance with the 7 Principles of Public Life.

2. The Committee’s consideration of the risks presented

There is a broad overlap between your time as a minister and this work given you had dealings with various external organisations, foreign governments, and their officials whilst in office. You did not have contact with the KHC but did meet with the Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs, HR Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani in February 2023 and April 2023.  You did not have any involvement in decisions specific to the KHC during your time in office.  The Committee[2] therefore considered the risk this appointment could reasonably be perceived as a reward for decisions made, or actions taken in office, is low.

You had oversight over the Middle East in office, which could be seen to offer unfair insight to any organisation working in this context.  Your proposed role includes providing advice on developments in the UK relevant to the KHC’s role in promoting peace, tolerance, coexistence and mutual respect among faiths, communities and nations. The risk is limited considering the FCDO confirmed it is not aware of any privileged information of note that would offer improper insight to the KHC and more broadly, the Kingdom of Bahrain.  It has also been 6 months since you left government and last had access to information; and  it would not be improper for you to draw on your breadth of experience, skills and open source, to advise the KHC on relevant developments in the UK.

As with any former minister, there are risks associated with your contacts and influence within government and the potential for the KHC to gain unfair access or influence as a result. The Committee considered it significant that you confirmed your role as Advisor excludes any dealings with government, reducing the risk you could be perceived to be lobbying government - which all former ministers are prevented from doing for two years after leaving office.

There are also risks associated with your influence and network of contacts gained whilst in ministerial office. Given the KHC is involved in implementing various initiatives and programmes in order to meet its aims and objectives, this may require building relationships with various stakeholders including local/international governments, educational and cultural institutions, business and civil society organisations. Were you to draw specifically on external contacts that you only gained as a result of your role in office to garner support for investment/ funding of the programs KHC are/wish to be involved in, this could give rise to a risk, or a perception thereof, unfair advantage to KHC .

3. The Committee’s advice

The Committee determined the risks identified can be appropriately mitigated by the conditions below. These make it clear that you cannot make use of privileged information, contacts or influence gained from your time in ministerial service to the unfair advantage of the KHC.

In accordance with the government’s Business Appointment Rules, the Committee advises this appointment with the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence be subject to the following conditions:

• you should not draw on (disclose or use for the benefit of yourself or the persons or organisations to which this advice refers) any privileged information available to you from your time in ministerial office;
• for two years from your last day in ministerial office, you should not become personally involved in lobbying the UK government or its arm’s length bodies  on behalf of the  King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients); nor should you make use, directly or indirectly, of your contacts in the government and/or ministerial office to influence policy, secure business/funding or otherwise unfairly advantage the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients);
• for two years from your last day in ministerial office, you should not provide advice to the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence  on the terms of, or with regard to the subject matter of, a bid with, or contract relating directly to the work of the UK government; and
• for two years from your last day in ministerial office, you should not become personally involved in lobbying contacts you have developed during your time in ministerial office in external governments and organisations for the purpose of securing business and/or investment for the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients).

The advice and the conditions under the government’s Business Appointment Rules relate to your previous role in government only; they are separate from rules administered by other bodies such as the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Registrar of Lords’ Interests[3]. You are reminded that as a Member of the House of Lords you are prevented from any paid lobbying under the House of Lords Code of Conduct. It is an applicant’s personal responsibility to understand any other rules and regulations they may be subject to in parallel with this Committee’s advice.

By ‘privileged information’ we mean official information to which a minister or Crown servant has had access as a consequence of his or her office or employment and which has not been made publicly available. Applicants are also reminded that they may be subject to other duties of confidentiality, whether under the Official Secrets Act, the Ministerial Code or otherwise.

The Business Appointment Rules explain that the restriction on lobbying means that you “should not engage in communication with government (ministers, civil servants, including special advisers, and other relevant officials/public office holders) – wherever it takes place – with a view to influencing a government decision, policy or contract award/grant in relation to their own interests or the interests of the organisation by which they are employed, or to whom they are contracted or with which they hold office”. 

You must inform us as soon as you take up employment with this organisation, or if it is announced that you will do so. Please inform us if you propose to extend or otherwise change the nature of your role as, depending on the circumstances, it may be necessary for you to make a fresh application.

Once the appointment has been publicly announced or taken up, we will publish this letter on the Committee’s website, and where appropriate, refer to it in the relevant annual report.

4. Annex – Material Information

4.1 The role

You said you have been offered a paid, part-time appointment with the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence (the KHC), which is an organisation which aims to promote peace and harmony among people and society through various programmes and initiatives, and with a particular focus on multi-faith dialogue. 

You stated that the KHC is involved in ‘building bridges between communities and fostering respect and co-existence between faiths.’

According to information available online, the KHC is headquartered in the Kingdom of Bahrain and established by royal decree in 2018. It is also supervised by the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The KHC fulfills its aims through:

• creating awareness
• education, training and research
• community engagement (local and international)

In your (paid) role as Advisor, you would advise the KHC on issues related to the KHC’s role in promoting peace, tolerance, coexistence and mutual respect among faiths, communities, and nations. This includes:

• developments in the UK that fall within or impact the KHC’s role/interests; and
• any other issues you may be asked to advise on, on an ad hoc basis.

You have confirmed that your role will not involve contact with or lobbying of government.

4.2 Dealings in office

You said that you had no involvement in policy development, contractual and/or commercial decisions specific to the KHC. You also said that you did not have official dealings/ contact with the KHC during your time in office.  You had regular meetings with the Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs in February 2023 and April 2023, but confirmed that the content of these meetings were broader than the KHC. You stated that there is no direct relationship between the KHC and the FCDO, but there is a standard diplomatic relationship between the UK and the Kingdom of Bahrain. You also said that you did not have any access to privileged information of specific relevance to this role.

4.3 Departmental assessment

The FCDO were consulted on this appointment. The department confirmed the above information and provided the following:

• You did not make any regulatory, commercial or policy decisions that would have affected the KHC.
• There is no specific relationship between the FCDO and KHC, except it is acknowledged that KHC is supervised by the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs and so, it will have a tangential relationship with the FCDO insofar as it is an international diplomatic stakeholder.
• You do not possess sensitive information that would confer an unfair advantage to the KHC. You did not make any funding or contractual/commercial decisions that affected the KHC.

The FCDO recommended the standard conditions.

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[1] Which apply by virtue of the Civil Service Management Code, The Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, The King’s Regulations and the Diplomatic Service Code.

[2]  This application for advice was considered by Andrew Cumpsty; Hedley Finn OBE; Sarah de Gay; Isabel Doverty; Dawid Konotey-Ahulu CBE DL; The Rt Hon Lord Pickles; Michael Prescott; and Mike Weir. The Baroness Thornton was unavailable.

[3] All Peers and Members of Parliament are prevented from paid lobbying under the House of Commons Code of Conduct and the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Lords. Advice on obligations under the Code can be sought from the Parliamentary Commissioners for Standards, in the case of MPs, or the Registrar of Lords’ Interests, in the case of peers.