Ministers who leave office following a serious breach of conduct rules will be stopped from getting pay-outs from October this year.
The existing watchdog, which the government describes as “toothless”, will be scrapped as part of wider reforms to parliamentary standards and culture.
This will also mean that former ministers who take up jobs that break post-government employment rules will be asked to pay back any severance payment.
The work of the Advisory Committee for Business Appointments (Acoba), which vets jobs taken up by former ministers and senior officials to avoid conflicts of interest, will be split between existing bodies.
Parliamentary standards
A new Ethics and Integrity Commission will replace the Committee on Standards in Public Life, established in 1994, which advises the prime minister on upholding ethical standards, the government said.
This will be chaired by existing committee leader Lt Gen Doug Chalmers, a former military chief.
The reforms will also mean that ministers who leave office having served fewer than six months will no longer get a severance payment.
Currently, ministers are entitled to a severance payment worth three months’ salary, regardless of how long they have been in the job or their reason for leaving.
Ministers who return to office within three months of leaving will also forgo their salary until the end of that three-month period.
It will ultimately be up to the prime minister to decide whether someone has made a “serious breach” of the ministerial code and to make a decision on severance pay.
The system for vetting post-government jobs will also be strengthened so former ministers face a financial penalty if they break the rules and they repay any severance.
Public sector unions have long been calling for ministerial conduct rules to be toughened.
Last year, FDA general secretary Dave Penman and Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy told a parliamentary standards committee that civil servants had “zero confidence” in raising complaints against current and former ministers.
At present, if former ministers want to take up a job after they have left government they can seek advice from Acoba, but are not compelled to follow this advice.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson, for example, breached rules by not seeking advice from Acoba before taking up a newspaper column at the Daily Mail.
The new rules will come into force from 13 October.
Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden said: “This overhaul will mean there are stronger rules, fewer quangos and clearer lines of accountability.”
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