Reform: A Full Account of a Free Market Think Tank

This is a roundup of all the research carried out by Social Investigations on the free market think tank, Reform. They are increasingly influential, listened to by the neo cons and promote the dismantling of public service into the hands of corporations that fund them and so many of our parlimentarians. This has been the most indepth look at the think tank thus far with some more to come in the future.

1. The Telegraph, the Think Tank and a Very Dodgy Business: Click "And the whole sequence of Telegraph articles and editorials on the importance of the Government not going soft on public service reform, including some strong pieces on health, is something I have been orchestrating and working with Reform to bring about.’

2. Reform - Setting the Agenda with Unknown Others  - Click - Chatham House Rules are a useful tool for discussions that hide the attendees. Reform, regularly use it for meetings that should be in the public domain.

3. Reform - a voice for corporations (series) - Reform has many corporations who are partners. They pay Reforn, and in return get to be in the same room as our lawmakers, lobby, contribute papers policy ideas that aim to persuade MPs. Policies that will benefit big business. Aviva, BMI Healthcare, G4S, Bupa.

4. Reform: A Charity or a conduit for privatisation? Click - Reform were at the conferences with sponsored corporations in tow, providing access to decision-makers.

5. MPs and Lord's Financial Links to Free Market Think Tank - Click - A well connected think tank, with multiple companies who also pay our Lords and MPs

6. Privatising Probation: What Reform says – Government does - Click - If you want to know what future government policy is going to be, don’t bother asking your government because they won’t tell you until it’s too late. Instead, turn your eyes to a right-wing think tank masquerading as a charity.

7. Reform think tank and their links to the Conservative Party - Click - they are a charity yet they have a clear bias towards the Conservative party - here are all their links to the right.

8. Complaint Over Think Tank 'Charity' Sent to Charity Commission - Click - based on the evidence, Reform appear to be in breach of the Charity Commission rules, so Social Investigations sent in a complaint.

9. Charity Commission Refuses to Investigate Complaint Regarding Charity's Links to the Conservative Party - Click The Charity Commission said there was 'no evidence to support the allegations that the Reform Research Trust has links with or promotes the aims and objectives of any political party.' They clearly are not bothering to look, despite being sent the clear links. Another organisation with a set of rules that are not fit for purpose. 

10. Charity Commission apologises for misleading statement on Reform's connections to the Conservative party - Click

Article Roundup - Attacks on Society, Deceit and Dirty Business

Every now and again I do an article roundup to bring together key articles from a couple of months work.

The first roundup focused on the Lords research and the healthcare takeover of parliament
More...

The second roundup was dedicated to  lobbying following the discovery of a document from a healthcare lobbying group that told the tale of how Sir Stephen Bubb played his part in changing the face of the NHS. In addition it looked at the daily Telegraph’s role in helping promote the message of ‘competition’. More...

This roundup looks at the political connections of two Think Tanks that silently go about producing policy that the government so readily take onboard to leverage public resources into the private companies that fund them. Reform, the BBC, Policy Exchange, Wonga are all in here, as is David Cameron and how the government accepted the recommendations of the ‘Choice and Competition’ working group of the NHS Future Forum before they received the final report. Democracy in this country is in a fragile state.

Please pass on this blog to anyone you know.

1. ‘Just as I was signing off our Panel's report on " Delivering real choice" I get sent a copy of the PM speech announcing he is accepting many of our key recommendations (although we haven't actually given him the report yet!) More…

2. Sir Stephen Bubb was a key figure in ensuring private healthcare remained in the Health and Social Care Act following the so-called ‘listening period.’ Read about how he bumped in Lansley and got briefed before appearing on the Health and Social Care bill Committee. More…

3. Policy Exchange Links to the Conservative Party. They are a think tank with charity status, but predominantly dream up ideas for privatising. They are meant to be politically ‘independent’, but are linked solely to the Conservative party. More here…

4. Reform are according to their website 'keen to involve corporate organisations in our research because their expertise is often left out of the Whitehall policy discussion.’ – See why this is a lie with reports on Aviva, BMI Healthcare, G4Sand see why this makes them a conduitto privatisation. You can also see which of their corporate partners are linked to Lords and MPs. More…

5. The BBC failed the people of the UK for whom they are meant to inform. A new report analyses the key stories they missed including the Lords and MPs research. How the BBC betrayed the NHS. More…

6. A Complaint was sent to the Charity Commission over the free market think tank Reform. The complaint focused on their political independence and their linksto the Conservative party. The second part of the complaint looked at misleading statements made on their website. We await their response. More...

7. The government want to privatise probations, and it is all linked into the Police Commissioner elections, which will act as an opportunity to pressurise local leaders to outsource other areas such as the fire brigade, the police, ambulance services, of which Reform suggest Police Commissioners should be in charge. More…

8. It takes a certain kind of person to run a company that takes advantage of people in desperate times, to squeeze money out of them when they have nowhere else to go. The kind of person who would do such a thing, should be admonished by society for preying on the needy however, this government, who receives money from one of their main funders, sees him as a person to go to for advice and to send senior advisers to lobby on the company's behalf. More…

Complaint Over Think Tank 'Charity' Sent to Charity Commission

Over the last month Social Investigations has researched the free market think tank, Reform, which to the discredit of the Charity Commission rules, is also a charity. The findings led to the conclusion that a complaint to the Charity Commission was justified under both misleading the public and questioning their political independence.

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Reform are important because they dream up policy for selling off our public assets like the NHS and the police and the Conservative party make policy based on their research. Their corporate partners are major global and UK corporations and scooping the financial rewards from the privatisation dreamed up by Reform.

Reform is seen by many organisations on both sides of the political spectrum as being an arm of the Conservative party, everyone recognises this except it would seem, the Charity Commission.

The Research revealed:

·      All the founders are linked to the Conservative party

·      Three out of the five trustees have direct links to the Conservative party

·      There are multiple companies who are Reform’s corporate partners who are linked to Lords and MPs

·      They were involved in lobbying to maintain ‘competition’ in the health and Social Care bill

·      They promote privatisation in all public sector areas

·      They make a claim on their website that is misleading

·      They hold meetings with ministers and corporations where no minutes are held using Chatham House Rules

·      The Conservatives have launched two policies at Reform

The Complaint sent to Charity Commission

Reform Research Trust – Charity Number: 1103739

The complaint against Reform centre on two areas:

·      Misleading the public

·      Political independence

1. Misleading the public

Misleading statement

Reform state on their website: 'We are keen to involve corporate organisations in our research because their expertise is often left out of the Whitehall policy discussion.'

I am providing a selection of files on three companies that are corporate partners to Reform in order to provide evidence that Reform’s statement on their site regarding the above statement is at best misleading and at worst deception.

In addition to the same point above, I am providing a list of the corporate partners with their links to MPs and Lords and a list of what area each company influences government policy.

The companies I have selected are:

·      Aviva

·      BMI Healthcare

·      G4S

I chose three simply because I didn’t want to inundate your organisation with files on all the companies that make up their corporate partners to make the point. The files represent those companies only, although the same would apply to all the other corporate partners and I would be happy to supply more if required.

Reform currently has 31 corporate partners; many of them represent some of the most powerful companies in the UK.

Current members are:  ABI, Aviva, Balfour Beatty, Benenden Healthcare Society, Bevan Brittan, BG Group, BVCA, Cable & Wireless, Capita, CH2M Hill, Clifford Chance, Citigroup, The City of London, Ernst & Young, GlaxoSmithKline, G4S, GE, General Healthcare Group, HP, ICAEW, KPMG, Maximus, McKesson, MSD, Optical Confederation, PA Consulting Group, Serco, Sodexo and Telereal Trillium.

These companies are not left our of Whitehall policy. As the files will show, they are often involved at various levels helping to develop policy.

Many of these companies are financially linked to Lords and MPs from all parties, although largely the Conservatives and in many cases they are in leading positions: Please see File titled Reform MP company links.

In one particular case, the director Andrew Haldenby specifically speaks up for and on behalf of G4S as it mentions in the G4S file.

Reform receives money from donations and sponsorship. Companies often sponsor an event so that they can lobby. The policy that these companies influence ends up creating more wealth for the companies and is not for the charitable aims of delivering economic prosperity to the people it claims to do. Not once in their summary return do they mention promoting privatisation, and yet through their corporate sponsorship, and work, this is exactly what they are doing.

2. Political independence.

The next complaint looks at their political independence.- See links to Conservative party here.

‘The guiding principal of charity law is that charities should be, and be seen to be, independent from party politics.’

Based on the statement above, Reform is not within charity law as their powerbase is almost totally towards the Conservative party.

I have produced a separate file for this titled: ‘Reform links to the right’.

Reform think tank and their links to the Conservative Party

Reform calls itself independent. However the research below brings this claim into question in what appears to be the breaking of the Charity Commission rules for all charities to remain politically independent. Download as PDF

The 'charity’s' claim to independence is based on having one Liberal Democrat (Jeremy Browne) and two Labour members (Lord Warner and MP Frank Field) and a Conservative MP, (Julian Smith) on their advisory team. These however do not represent the overall dominance of the organisation towards the Conservative party, which can be seen by the powerbase, of the founders and trustees. The bullet points below represent a list of these connections.

• All of the co-founders have links to the Conservative party.
• Reform is recognised as part of the Conservative party movement by multiple medium including the Conservativehome. 
• Two MPs to emerge from Reform both belong to the Conservative party
• Two of the trustees have provided money to individuals in the Conservative party
• Two of the trustees and a director have advised two Conservative MPs

Founders:

Three people set up Reform Research Trust in 2002: All have links to the Conservative party.

Andrew Haldenby, Nick Herbert and Patrick Barbour.

Andrew Haldenby: Director was formerly head of the Conservative Research Department (1995-1997), finishing up as Head of the Political Section with responsibility for briefing the Shadow Cabinet and Leader for key media interviews and appearances. Mr Haldenby is considered by the Telegraph to be the 59^th most influential person on the right.[1]

Nick Herbert: MP is founder of Reform and a member of the Conservative party. Mr Herbert is considered by the Telegraph to be the 86^thmost influential person on the right. [2]

Patrick Barbour: (No longer part of Reform) but politically active on the Eurosceptic right of the Conservative Party since at least the early nineties when he helped to fund the Bruges Group.  Patrick Robertson, The patriotic 'pipsqueak' of Bruges, The Sunday Times, 16-June-1991 – Gave the Conservative Central party £7,000 in 2005 and has since gone on to become a donor of UKIP. 

Trustees:

The Trustees of Reform according to their website are:

Stephen Hargrave, James Palmer and Jeremy Sillem. In the 2011 Full accounts, additional trustees were Rupert Darwell and Oliver Pawle.[3]

Rupert Darwall: Noted as a trustee in the 2011 full annual accounts is a Consultant Director of Reform, a freelance strategy consultant. He was previously Special Adviser to the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont. [4]

Oliver Pawle: Currently the Honorary Treasurer. In the 2011 Full accounts it says: One of ‘The trustees who held office during the year’ was ‘Oliver Pawle’. Mr Pawle gave money to Dr Liam Fox for £5,000 on 2^nd November 2009 to help run his office.[5]Mr Pawle is down as a trustee during this period. In 2009, he attended a Conservative premier dinner at the Dorchester.[6]In addition Mr Pawle advised Francis Maude on the possible structures and duties of the non-executive directors in a new structure to governance structures. [7]

Stephen Hargrave: Trustee and director, who according to the Electoral Commission gave £5,000 to Conservative MP David Davis in 2001 for a leadership candidate, this was prior to Reform becoming a charity.

MPs who worked for Reform before becoming MPs

Nick Herbert founded Reform and is now the Conservative MP for Arundel and South Downs.

Elizabeth Truss was a deputy director of Reform in 2008 and is now the Conservative MP for South West Norfolk

Other

Nick Boys Smith, consultant director - adviser on welfare policy to Conservative MP Peter Lilley when he was Secretary of state for Social Security before working at McKinsey & Co. [8]

Media stating Reform as part of Conservative movement

In July 2009, Cameron gave a speech to Reform think tank launching the Conservative policy on culling quangos.[9]

In July 2011 - David Cameron launched his plans for public service privatisation programme at the Think Tank Reform.[10]No other party launches policy from Reform

In January 2008 the Telegraph listed the top twelve think tanks in its opinion. It said of Reform: 'Political links. Good relations with Tories. Nick Herbert, Shadow Justice Secretary helped set it up.'[11]

In 2009, ConservativeHome.Com who are supporters of the Conservative party produced an article that talked about the ‘growth of Britain’s conservative movement’.  Reform is included in list of list of organisations they see as Conservative.[12]

In their 2011 report, Reform have a quote from journalist George Monbiot which says on their transparency: ‘The only right-wing think tank that did well was Reform.’[13]

In February 2012 - Will Heaven as Acting Deputy Comment Editor of The Daily Telegraph wrote: 'Today the think tank Reform, one that informs Conservative policy, pleads with the Government to "renew the commitment to NHS reform".'[14]

Reform had meetings "meetings of “leaders of the conservative movement … sharing ideas to try to pave the way to a new Tory government."

The Times claimed Reform had meetings of “leaders of the conservative movement … sharing ideas to try to pave the way to a new Tory government." [15]

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[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/9589957/Iain-Dales-Top-100-most-influential-figures-from-the-Right-2012.html

http://reformscotland.com/index.php/about/advisory-board/andrew-haldenby

[2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/9589957/Iain-Dales-Top-100-most-influential-figures-from-the-Right-2012.html http://www.redpepper.org.uk/tory-think-tanks-tangled-web/

[3] http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends39%5C0001103739_ac_20111231_e_c.pdf

[4]http://www.reform.co.uk/content/6675/reform/our_people/executive_team/rupert_darwall

[5]http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/100927/fox_dr-liam.htm

[6] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/dinner-at-the-carlton-the-new-tory-power-brokers-1793736.html

[7] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7683214/General-Election-2010-City-bosses-on-standby-to-join-Tory-departments.html

[8]http://www.reform.co.uk/content/6674/reform/our_people/executive_team/nick_boys_smith

[9] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/07/michael-white-david-cameron-quangos

[10] http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2011/07/cameron-to-launch-public-service-reform-plans/

[11] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/1576447/The-top-twelve-think-tanks-in-Britain.html

[12] http://conservativehome.blogs.com/centreright/2009/03/the-growth-of-b.html

[13]http://www.reform.co.uk/content/13777/reform/annual_review/annual_review

[14] http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100136500/of-all-people-why-are-tory-right-wingers-setting-themselves-against-nhs-reform/

[15] http://www.johnmannmp.com/complaints_to_charity_commission 

Privatising Probation: What Reform says – Government does

If you want to know what future government policy is going to be, don’t bother asking your government because they won’t tell you until it’s too late. Instead, turn your eyes to a right-wing think tank masquerading as a charity.

In February 2011, Reform, a free market think tank, produced a brochurebased on a meeting held at global law firm, Clifford Chance, titled: ‘21^stcentury justice’. The meeting in large part discussed the probation and prison service and the need for change. 

However, whenever Reform says change, what they actually mean is privatisation, and that is exactly what is going to happen with the probation service. Chris Grayling has said the government will push ahead with a pay by results system, rather disturbingly, before any assessment of the pilot schemes has taken place. outsourcing the process to private companies. This policy David Cameron will be announcing today - the outsourcing of large parts of our prison service.

The meeting last year was attended amongst others, by Blair Gibbs, Head of Crime and Justice at the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange and former Advisor to Nick Herbert MP. Mr Herbert was a co-founder of Reform before becoming an MP. Another attendee was David Banks, Managing Director, Care and Justice Services, G4S.

G4S are one of the likely beneficiaries of any probation privatisation. G4S are a global security company who currently have operations in 125 countries; and are the biggest security company in the world. G4S also pay Reform to be a corporatepartner and are not short of a voice or two in power. G4S has access to the very top, paying the former Labour Secretary of State for Defence, Lord Reid as a director and Lord Condon who is a Non-executive Deputy Chairman & Senior Independent Director. It would be reasonable to ask where the Liberal Democrats are in all this, but it turns out, the crime prevention minister Jeremy Browne, who is the Lib Dem MP for Taunton, sits on the Reform advisoryboard.

The probation service is however just the tip of the iceberg with the advent of Police and Crime Commissioner elections taking place on the 15^th of November this year, who Reform believe should be in control of prisons, probation, courts, fire and ambulance services as well as policing.

The Daily Telegraph recently exposedMervyn Barrett, a candidate for the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commission position as being supported by American neo-con lobbyists, the Fund for the New American Century. Following the G4S fiasco during the Olympics, Mr Barrett verbally came out in support of the company saying they are working well in Lincolnshire, where they have come out in support of G4S, where it provides police support services.

He is not G4S’s only supporter, Andrew Haldenby, the director and co-founder of Reform, wrote and article in the Timesfollowing the G4S failings, stating: ‘the coalition’ is not proposing to ask G4S to bid to supply bobbies in competition with the local authorities. It might be worth a look, though — if only to wipe a little of the smugness off the faces of spokesmen from the trade union known as the Association of Chief Police Officers, who have spent the past week wallowing in G4S’s embarrassment.’

Such fervent support for their corporate partner is expected from these enemies of the state. Reform claim they involve corporations in their ‘charity’ work because they are ‘often left out of the Whitehall policy discussion.’ However, since 2010, G4S have had at least 17 government meetings and given 7 oral presentations to government.

In addition they regularly provide written evidence, which they did in January this year, providing a submission to the Justice Committee on the subject of Care and Justice Services. Number 32 of their submission recommended in addition to existing areas, that the government should ‘consider other areas to increase competition such as: Probation services’.

Today’s politics mean that a corporation’s wish is a government command. If the public don’t like something they are forced to protest, which is largely ignored or aggressively attacked if it takes the form of direct action. For organisations like G4S, they pay Reform, and in return, get promoted by the think tank to the politicians who attend the same meetings. G4S are then invited to say to government what they want in a written submission, the passage of policy bypassing the public with undemocratic stealth. The government then produces another policy that neither coalition party had in their manifesto. Democracy is broken and very soon if we do not resist, we are going to have G4S running our police and I don’t want that in my society.

Further reading:

1. MPs and Lords Financial links to Reform http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-lords-and-mps-employed-by.html
2. Reform – a charity of a conduit to privatisation? - http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/reform-charity-or-conduit-for.html
3. Reform – a voice for corporations - http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/reform-voice-for-corporations-g4s.html 

 

MPs and Lord's Financial Links to Free Market Think Tank

As part of a series of investigations looking into the free market think tank Reform, the financial links between our so-called public servants, corporations and Reform has brought into question whether Reform should be stripped of their ‘charity’ status.

Now Social Investigations has revealed the list of companies that give money to Reform in either donations or sponsorship who also are employing or have financial connections to our so-called public servants in key sectors of our society.

So far we have found out:

• Reform’s involvement in promoting‘competition’ in the Health and Social Care bill during the ‘listening exercise’

• Promoting the outsourcing of NHS hospitals

• The use of Chatham House Rules to hold high-level meetings on matters of promoting public service reform without minutes or knowing who was in attendance

• Providing a voice for Aviva and BMIHealthcare and their other corporate partners

Now below we can see the list of companies and their connections to MPs and Lords who also pay money to Reform and the amounts they paid in 2011. The amounts, though small for a corporation their size, allows them additional access to MPs and Lords at events, seminars, policy lunches, fringe conference events and promotion of policies in articles often via the Daily Telegraph and other media outlets.

The time has surely come to end their charity status.

Corporations; Links to MPs/Lords and amounts paid to Reform in 2011.

Lloyds – Lord Blackwell (Con): Non Executive director of Lloyds Banking Group plc Henry Bellingham (Con) – MP for North West Norfolk, Jonathan Djanogly MP (Con) for Huntingdon, Dominic Grieve, MP for Beaconsfield (Con) – all former members of Lloyds. Lord Leitch (Lab): Deputy Chairman, Lloyds TSB bank plc; advisor of Lloyds Banking Group plc; Trustee, Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales. Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Lib Dem) Member, Lloyds Register Advisory Committee (unremunerated)	£50,000.00
McKesson - Lord Carter: (Lab) The head of the increasingly influential Competition and Cooperation Panel, is also the Chair of McKesson Information Solutions Ltd, which delivers I.T to “virtually every NHS organisation”	£42,500.00
Sky – Lord Wilson of Dinton (Crossbench; Con) – Non-Executive director of BSkyB) Mary MacLeod MP for Brentford and Isleworth (Con) received £7,000 sponsorship for Hounslow Volunteering Awards organized by the MP. Lord Howard of Rising (Con), Baroness Noakes Shares in BSkyB. Conservative party as a whole tried to get BSkyB bid passed.	£42,000.00
DANONE – Lord Lucas (Con) - Member, Pre and Probiotics Information Panel, Danone UK	£30,000.00
Aviva – Lord Sharman (Con) Is the chairman of Aviva, has directorship and Shareholdings in Aviva plc	£24,500.00
General Health Group: (GHG) were purchased by Apax Partners  in 2006. Labour Peer, Lord Warner (Lab), was a former advisor to Apax Partners in 2007 when Apax had taken over GHG. Lord Warner is also a member of the Advisory Council for think tank Reform. The think tank received money from GHG for sponsorship and whose health policy for 2011 was stated as looking at: ‘The implications of greater efficiency for healthcare infrastructure, in particular hospitals.’	£24,500.00
Microsoft – Baroness Kingsmill (Lab) Member, Microsoft European Policy Council. Lord Watson of Richmond (Lib Dem) Non-executive Chairman, ICOMP and consultant to Microsoft.	£24,000.00
Serco – Lord Filkin (Labour) Public Affairs Advisor	£21,500.00
Prudential Lord Turnbull (Crossbench) Non-Executive director and shares	£20,000.00
KPMG - Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab) is a Senior Adviser and Lord Hastings (Crossbench) is the Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity for Global Tax.	£17,500.00
PA Consulting – George Freeman MP for Mid Norfolk (Con) Between November 2010 and November 2011 he provided strategic support to their Technological practice.	£15,000.00
PWC – Lord Ribeiro (Con) Adviser on hospital reorganization to PwC	£15,000.00
Telereal Trillium – Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach (Con) Category 2: Remunerated employment	£15,000.00
Airwave – Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab) Chair of Toby Harris Associates, whose clients include: Airwave Solutions	£12,500.00
G4S – Lord Condon (Crossbench) - Non-executive Deputy Chairman & Senior Independent Director. Lord Reid of Cardowan (Labour) Director Regional management.	£12,500.00
BG Group – Baroness Hogg (Con) - Senior Independent Director and holds shares.	£7,500.00
Cable & Wireless – Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Lab) is a Senior International Adviser and has shares in the company	£7,500.00
GlaxoSmithKline 19 Lords and MPs have shares in GlaxoSmithKline.	£7,500.00
McKinsey – David Milliband MP for South Shields (Lab) received £10,000 from McKinsey and Co for a speech at a Global Business Leaders Summit in February last year. Also received a sum of £10,044 from the same company for travel expenses and accommodation in Singapore in March 2011. McKinsey & Co drew up loads of proposals that were accepted into the Health and Social Care bill. The consultancy giant also proposed the £20 billion cuts to the NHS accepted by the Coalition government. David Bennett the head of Monitor the new NHS regulator is a former employer.	£7,500.00
BP – Lord Jones of Birmingham (Crossbench) – Advisor. Lord Patten of Barnes - Member, International Advisory Board. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen - Deputy Chairman of Board & Chairman of Audit Committee, TNK-BP (Moscow-based joint venture in oil/gas) and an Adviser, BP plc. The Member receives a limited amount of secretarial assistance from BP plc. Lord Watson of Richmond is a consultant for BP plc.	£5,000.00
Circle – Mark Simmonds MP (Con) Special advisor. Baron Higgins of Worthing, a Conservative, holds in excess of £50,000 of shares in Lansdowne UK Equity Fund, backers of private hospital group Circle Holdings. Lord Watson is the Chairman of Havas Media UK, an integrated agency, 100% owned by Havas Media. In April 2011 - MPG Media Contacts won the integrated media planning and buying account for Circle Health. The account is worth just under £1m, according to MPG Media Contacts. Circle recruited Christina Lineen as head of communications following a two-year period as an advisor to Andrew Lansley. It is possible she is returning to government as an advisor to the new Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt. Christina Lineen replaced Nick Seddon who is now a deputy director of Reform who has been heavily promoting the outsourcing of hospitals largely through the Telegraph. As well as being a member of NHS Partners Network, Circle has given money to Reform via sponsorship.	£5,000.00

Download the PDF here.