{"id":113615,"date":"2021-02-19T19:26:22","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T19:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=113615"},"modified":"2021-02-19T19:26:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T19:26:22","slug":"university-regulator-faces-conflict-of-interest-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/university-regulator-faces-conflict-of-interest-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"University regulator faces &apos;conflict of interest&apos; questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>University regulator head Lord Wharton in &#8216;conflict of interest&#8217; row as it&#8217;s revealed he is paid adviser for company planning to build on Portsmouth campus<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lord Wharton has been appoint as the chair for the Office for Students (OfS)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>But he is also a paid adviser for Aquind which plans to build cables through uni<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Questions have been raised by Portsmouth MPs over about &#8216;conflict of interest&#8217;\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>England&#8217;s University regulator is facing questions over a potential &#8216;conflict of interest&#8217; after appointing Lord Wharton as chair for the Office for Students (OfS), it has been revealed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As well as being appointed the chair of the OfS, Lord Wharton is also a paid adviser for the firm Aquind.<\/p>\n<p>Aquind wants to build a cable network linking the UK and French electricity grids, but the \u00a31.2billion project would be built through the University of Portsmouth.<\/p>\n<p>The University is said to be strongly opposed to the route and has been approached by the Mail Online for contact.<\/p>\n<p>It is concerned about disruption to sporting facilities as the cables would run through its land, which it claims would leave it with financial losses.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/02\/19\/18\/39501496-9279515-image-a-8_1613759229484.jpg\" height=\"899\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Lord Wharton is also a paid adviser for the firm Aquind which\u00a0wants to build a cable network linking the UK and French electricity grids<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/02\/19\/18\/39501498-9279515-image-a-9_1613759286322.jpg\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Both Labour and Conservative MPs in the city area are also opposed to potential digging through densely populated areas<\/p>\n<p>But Aquind has rejected the claims and said the impact would be &#8216;minimal&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Both Labour and Conservative MPs in the city area are also opposed to potential digging through densely populated areas.<\/p>\n<p>Several Portsmouth MPs have raised concerns about a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n<p>Labour MP for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, told the BBC: &#8216;We know Aquind has links to Tory donors.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But to be advising a firm responsible for this project while it is being challenged by a university Wharton is set to regulate, raises serious red flags about his impartiality, particularly if he keeps the Conservative whip.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;These revelations cast fresh doubt over Lord Wharton&#8217;s suitability for this key role.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>But the OfS says protections are in place to prevent any conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n<p>An OfS spokesperson said: &#8216;The interests of all OfS board members are published on our website.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Where there is a conflict of interest, or a reasonable perception of a conflict, board members must comply with the OfS rules in this area.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;These are published on our website. Where there is a conflict related to an individual higher education provider we would expect the relevant board member to exclude themselves from any decisions directly related to that provider.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Lord Wharton becomes chair of the OfS in April 2021, and a declaration of his interests will be published on our website when he takes up the post.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/02\/19\/18\/39501500-9279515-image-a-10_1613759301666.jpg\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The University of Portsmouth has raised concerns about disruption to its facilities if the cables are built underground\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;As a peer, Lord Wharton&#8217;s interests are already publicly declared on the Parliamentary website.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>An Aquind spokesman said Lord Wharton had no part determining the location of the underground cables or in the ongoing engagement with Portsmouth Univerisity.<\/p>\n<p>Lord Wharton said in a statement: &#8216;The OfS has robust rules to deal with any conflicts of interests for the chair and board.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;All of my interests will be publicly declared on the OfS website.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I will of course play no part in any decisions where I have a conflict of interest or where there may be perceptions of one.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The Department for Education also defended the appointment and rejected accusations of cronyism made by Labour.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9279515\/University-regulator-faces-conflict-questions-appointment-Lord-Wharton.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>University regulator head Lord Wharton in &#8216;conflict<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":113614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>University regulator faces &amp;apos;conflict of interest&amp;apos; 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