Government’s appointments watchdog Acoba has approved Alex Chisholm to take on a post supporting BT’s engagement with Ofcom, as well as assisting with the firm’s ‘strategy, governance, oversight and assurance’

Former civil service chief operating officer Sir Alex Chisholm has been given the green light to take on a paid position with BT, in which he will help the telecoms giant engage with market regulator Ofcom.

Having left government in spring of this year, Chisholm has already taken on a role as non-executive chair EDF Energy. His appointment to that position was approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), the anti-corruption body which monitors the post-government roles taken on by former ministers and high-level civil servants.

The watchdog has now published details of its consideration of Chisholm’s application to take on another post at BT Group which, as with the EDF brief, is a paid part-time non-executive directorship.

Having been approved to accept the position, Chisholm will serve the telco as its primary independent non-executive director.

The key purpose of this post is to act as “as an alternative board level point of contact for Ofcom, if and when needed” – and instead of or alongside BT’s chief executive Allison Kirkby and chairman Adam Crozier.

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Chisholm’s work for the tech and communications company will also “involve sharing in the responsibilities of the board for the company’s strategy and for governance, oversight and assurance, [which] includes its regulatory and corporate responsibilities, notably its commitments to customers, to Ofcom, and to wider stakeholders”.

Acoba imposed on the former civil service COO a standard set of conditions to his acceptance of the BT post, including a stipulation that he should not disclose or use “any privileged information available to him from his time” in government.

During the initial two-year period following his departure from Whitehall, Chisholm is also barred from: lobbying government on behalf of BT: and advising the firm on any ongoing bids for public contracts or funding.

The company told Acoba: “‘BT has an established framework for managing its relations with government… [and] the company will help to ensure that Sir Alex, in his new appointment as a non-executive director, engages with government in the ways permitted by the Acoba guidance, so that he is not personally involved in lobbying, in negotiating future contracts, nor in advising on the terms in bids to government for future contracts or funding. BT understands and respects the conditions set by Acoba and confirms that it will support Sir Alex in adhering with the conditions. It will incorporate the conditions into its own internal governance arrangements.”

Alongside his brief as chief operations officer, Chisholm also held the post of permanent secretary of the Cabinet Office from 2020. Before joining the central department, earlier in his government career he also served as perm sec of the former Departments for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and Energy and Climate Change, as well as holding the post as chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority.

During his time in the civil service, Chisholm was often a high-profile advocate for digital transformation. Late last year he claimed that artificial intelligence could save government almost £5bn a year and could take over large parts of the administrative duties currently performed by “tens of thousands” of staff.