William Bach

Lord William Stephen Goulden Bach (born 25 December 1946) is a Labour member of the House of Lords. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice on 6 October 2008 until 2010. He previously served as a Minister in the Whips' office, the former Lord Chancellor's Department, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Background

Bach was educated at Westminster School and then New College, Oxford, before being called to the Bar in 1972. He served as a barrister and a local councillor in Leicester, and was made Head of Chambers at King Street Chambers in Leicester on the Midland Circuit in 1996.

In 1998, Bach was raised to the peerage, as Baron Bach, of Lutterworth in the County of Leicestershire, where he lives. He was appointed a Government whip in the Lords in 1999, and so officially one of Her Majesty's "Lords in Waiting".

From November 2000, Lord Bach served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Lord Chancellor's Department, until June 8, 2001 when, after the general election, Lord Bach replaced The Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Procurement – one of the most high-profile jobs in the Ministry of Defence.

Activities

Revolving Door and Helicopters

Bach was employed at the MoD during negotiations that led to a £1 billion procurement contract secured by Finmeccanica’s subsidiary Agusta Westland to build 70 Future Lynx helicopters to be deployed in Afghanistan. The helicopter contract was seen as absolutely vital to Augusta Westland. Documents released under Freedom of Information show that in July 2005 the company “had a very limited order book and were very dependent on Future Lynx”. Exactly why and how it won the contract, which was signed in June 2006, has been heavily criticised ever since by politicians and military experts.

Lord Bach’s role is controversial. He was Minister of Defence Procurement until May 2005. Documents released under Freedom of Information show that the year before he left, the Future Lynx was his responsibility. The government, under FOI laws, has admitted it had meetings with Agusta Westland in May 2004 and January 2005. However it has refused to release the minutes of these meetings, citing commercial confidentiality.

Bach was also instrumental in securing Agusta Westland a potentially lucrative contract to supply the US Presidential helicopter. According to correspondence dated January 2005 between Lord Bach and Alan Johnston, the then managing director of Agusta Westland, Johnston thanked Lord Bach for the help offered in securing the reportedly £850m US presidential helicopter fleet contract.

The letter wrote: “Dear Willy, Thanks you so much for all your help in securing the US Presidential contract”. The contract was later cancelled under the Obama administration, as costs were on the rise.

Bach then moved to the Department of Environment, where he became Parliamentary Undersecretary of State, until May 2006. In October 2006, he was appointed chairman of Finmeccanica's subsidiary Selex Sensor and, in January 2007, he became director of Finmeccanica UK.

After Lord Bach left his government post, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) ruled in June 2006 that "for twelve months after leaving office, he should not be personally involved in lobbying government ministers or officials on behalf of Finmeccanica or their subsidiaries".

In November 2007 he resigned from Selex Sensor and Finmeccanica to return to his position as a government whip.

Affiliations

• Chairman (2006-2007) of the defence electronics company SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems SpA Board of Directors from September 2006 until November 2007, when he resigned from the board in order to return to his role as a government whip.

Resources

• Finmeccanica, Press release, 09 November 2007, accessed 24 November 2008.
• Ministry of Justice, Lord Bach, accessed 24 November 2008.
• Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems, About Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems, accessed 24 November 2008.
• Ungoed-Thomas, Jon, et al., "Revealed: how minister cashed in on contacts," The Sunday Times, 23 November 2008, accessed 24 November 2008.
• Manuela Mesco and Andy Rowell, SpinWatch, Revolving Doors Revealed, 26 July 2011