The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7486 p75
26 January 2008

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Former health secretary Hewitt lands advisory role at Boots

Former Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt has joined Alliance Boots Ltd as a special consultant. She will work for the company for up to 24 days a year.

The Government’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments ruled that she could not take up the post until this month — six months after leaving her ministerial post — and that she should not personally be involved in lobbying the Government on Alliance Boots’s behalf for a further six months.

She will also be working for Cinven, a private equity company that recently acquired 25 hospitals from BUPA, subject to the same restrictions.

Two members of the seven-member committee that approved the terms of Ms Hewitt’s appointments did not think that the six- and 12-month waiting periods were long enough.