Working with governments; staying open and transparent

There’s been some media reports about Mike’s appointment to HMRC’s board as a non-executive director.

As a company we don’t have a partisan view - instead, we have our positions. One of those is ‘openness is something all organisations should value and practice’, which is why I’m writing about this.

We founded Public Digital to help governments, large businesses, and institutions that matter change their way of working so they can become more responsive, adaptable and impactful. Both Public Digital and individual leaders on our team have a proud record of working with the Conservative, Labour and Coalition governments in the UK - as well as administrations of a different political mix around the world, from Australia to Argentina via Ukraine and many others.

We’re often engaged by governments and businesses alike to help with a crisis or solve their most complex challenges because of the clear-sighted focus, expertise and experience we bring.

We’ve previously written about our Ethics process, but we don’t see working to improve public services delivered by a democratic government as being politically contentious. We have never donated cash to any political party. It is testament to our teams’ expertise and experience that we have had colleagues seconded to Westminster in the run-up to the election - and we declared that openly at the time both through the official channels, and in our own corporate communications.

Any contract Public Digital has with any government globally is always contracted in full compliance with procurement regulations and legal requirements. When Mike accepted his HMRC non-executive position, we agreed to recuse Public Digital from competing for or delivering any contracts with HMRC while he is in post. Our full policy on managing conflicts of interest is available here.

Anyone who knows Mike will appreciate the vast expertise and experience he will bring to his new role at HMRC.