He then worked in the Department of Trade and Industry, eventually as Director-General of Legal Services, before he was appointed HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor in 1997.
[1] In January 2001, Hammond was appointed by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to lead an inquiry into the Hinduja passport scandal.
[4] Hammond's appointment was criticised by Kevin Maguire in The Guardian; he reported that Hammond was "an old Home Office hand" who had previously issued public interest immunity certificates to "suppress evidence of government collusion in the sale of weapons-making machinery to Baghdad in breach of a UN embargo" (the arms-to-Iraq scandal).
Hammond had justified the certificates by saying that "the very nature of the work of the security and intelligence services of the crown requires secrecy if it is to be effective".
[7] Hammond was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1991, an honorary Queen's Counsel in 1997 and Master of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers for the year 2007.