Role of 'spin doctors' under fire

The role of special advisers in government should be reduced according to a powerful Parliament watchdog.

The report by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, 'Defining the boundaries within the Executive – Ministers, special advisers and the permanent Civil Service', sets out recommendations on how to define the different roles, and responsibilities between Ministers, special advisers and civil servants. The committee says that the report is intended to "reinforce transparency, impartiality and accountability" in the executive.

Though classed as civil servants, special advisers are personally appointed by Ministers and are not subject to the general Civil Service obligation to be objective and impartial; and are able to represent Ministers’ views on Government policy to the media with “a degree of political commitment”.

The committee said that this was "an inherently unsatisfactory position".

Among the recommendations are, the creation of an Adviser on Ministerial Interests and the abolition of their temporary civil servant status.

There should also be guidelines as to what a special adviser can do, says the committee, and an annual statement should to be made to Parliament setting number, cost and responsibilities of advisers. This view is lent extra weight by a recent report which found that annual wage bill for special advisers (drawn from the public purse) was around £13 million – or £8 million more than the cabinet they serve.

Committee chairman, Sir Nigel Wicks, said the recommendations would "prevent the unfortunate events which, though occasional, occur when there is a breakdown in relationships between Ministers, civil servants and special advisers and which are corrosive of the public’s estimation of office-holders in the Executive".

The most infamous instance of "corrosive" publicity rooted in the role of the special adviser came on the day of the World Trade Center attacks in New York. On September 11 2001, Jo Moore, an adviser to then Transport Minister Stephen Byers, wrote in an email that it would a "good day to bury bad news" as the eyes of the media were focused on the tragedy unfolding in America. When the email emerged, the was a huge public outcry, and the subsequent imbroglio between her boss Martin Sixsmith and Stephen Byers saw both Moore and Sixsmith relieved of their posts.

The heightened focus on "spin doctors" and media managers within the government has proved to be a perennial problem for the government. And in an attempt to distance itself from accusations of presentation over substance, the Prime Minister's director of publicity, Alistair Campbell, has adopted a less visible role – having handed on his lobby briefing role to civil servant Godric Smith.

However, whilst the report may make uncomfortable reading for the special adviser, the committee concluded that they have a "valuable role to play, precisely because they are free to act and advise in a way that a politically impartial civil servant cannot".

(GMcG)