There are two ways that an individual can be subject to a five-year prohibition. I've been asked this question in a previous committee in terms of privacy of information, but maybe I can answer the question another way.
For individuals who are subject to the five-year prohibition, if they were designated under the conflict of interest and post-employment code—if they were exempt staff in a minister's office—and if they left prior to the Lobbying Act coming into force, they were subject to this five-year prohibition, to which there was no possibility of being granted an exemption. So depending on when an individual would have left, they could not have requested an exemption. What that means is that they would be prohibited from lobbying from the date they left office in terms of acting as a consultant lobbyist, an in-house organization lobbyist, or an in-house corporation lobbyist.
When the Lobbying Act came into force in July 2008, it designated a number of individuals, and that would be those who worked in ministers' offices and their staff appointed under section 128 of the Public Service Employment Act. Those individuals may apply for an exemption, and as I said previously, I have taken a very strict view on that. I have only granted four, and the act requires that without undue delay I post the reasons for the four on the website. So if you were to check, the individual in question you're asking about is not on the website.