Ex-health secretary Lord Lansley takes on three private sector roles

Former health secretary Andrew Lansley has taken on three private sector jobs, including advising pharmaceutical giant Roche.

The Tory peer, who oversaw a transformation of the health service to hand multibillion-pound budgets to GPs, has declared work as an adviser to Roche and to the private equity firm Blackstone on investments in the health sector, the Guardian reported.

A third role is acting as an adviser to the chair and executive director of UKActive, a body that receives funding from the fitness industry and Coca-Cola.

This comes on top of other appointments to advise corporate clients for management consultants Bain & Company, as well as working for a consultancy set up by his wife called Low Associates.

His work involves advising on "pharmaceutical supply and pricing issues in Europe" until the end of November, according to his House of Lords register of interests.

Roche has hit the headlines after clashing with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) over the pricing of some of its cancer drugs.

Some of its life-extending medicines are also available through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) in England.

Lord Lansley told the Guardian that none of the roles involved lobbying the Government and all had been notified to the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba).

Acoba told the Guardian it had approved the roles at Bain and Blackstone in July and UKActive and Low Associates in June, subject to a two-year ban on lobbying starting from Lord Lansley's last day as a minister in 2014 and on condition that he did not draw on privileged information that was available to him when in government.