Special Advisers and Civil Servants (Hansard, 28 January 2004)

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, in their response to the ninth report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the Government proposed an amendment to the code of conduct for special advisers to provide a clarification of the relationships between special advisers and permanent civil servants. Since then, the Government have agreed to remove the reference to special advisers relaying ministerial instructions to officials from the amendment.

§ Lord Sheldon
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply. Is he aware that the recommendation of the Wicks Committee on Standards in Public Life called for a clear statement of what special advisers cannot do, which is to be set out in primary legislation? Will the draft legislation do that, and what assurances can he give that following the Government's draft 201 legislation in this Session, in the next Session a Civil Service Act will reach the statute book in Parliament to be implemented in due course?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, I can confirm that during the current parliamentary Session, a draft Bill will be published. However, what I cannot do— and it would be improper for me to do this—would be to give a commitment to legislation being in the following parliamentary Session, as is the usual convention. I am sure that the matters that the noble Lord raises in this context are the sort of issues that will be covered in the draft legislation. They have been extensively discussed and, of course, we recognise the importance of the issue.

§ Lord McNally
My Lords, does the Minister agree that over the past 30 years the system of political advisers, properly structured, has given excellent advice to successive governments? Would he further agree that, unless there is a clear delineation of roles and lines of accountability, there is a very real danger that political appointments will chair committees that they should not chair and that civil servants who are supposed to be giving neutral advice will find that subconsciously that advice is influenced by a political input?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for confessing to a former life, in a roundabout fashion. It is right that we have clear guidance and guidelines on these matters. It is worth reminding your Lordships' House that this Government were the first to introduce a model contract and code of conduct for special advisers. That transparency did not exist in previous administrations, so our Government have a very good track record in ensuring that that transparency and clarity is there and understood.

§ Baroness Seccombe
My Lords, will the Minister tell the House why the numbers of special advisers and the costs of running the Government's media operation have increased so much since 1997? Is it that civil servants are so much worse or spin so much more important?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, each government must decide what they require in terms of special advisers. It is true that the number of special advisers has increased with the current Government. However, it is worth quoting the noble Lord, Lord Wilson of Dinton, when as Cabinet Secretary he gave evidence to the Committee on Standards in Public Life. He said: I do not think the senior civil service of 3,700 people is in danger of being swamped by 70 special advisers. That is not what is happening and I do not see it as creeping politicisation". He was quite clear that our Government were acting properly in having the number of special advisers that we currently have.

§ Lord Lester of Herne Hill
My Lords, would the Minister agree with me that it is a very long time since 202 the Cook-Maclennan agreement between my party and his party agreed on the need for Civil Service legislation? Would he also agree that there is a pressing public need to create a proper constitutional framework and to ban special advisers, such as I was, from exercising any executive power?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for reminding him of his former life. We are clear about the boundaries that exist, and there is a clear delineation. The number of special advisers with executive powers is carefully guided. We have waited some time for there to be legislation on this and there has been a very valuable debate on these issues. We have given a commitment, which I repeated today, that we shall publish our own draft Bill in the current Session. The noble Lord may see that as slow progress, but it is progress that is right and we want to ensure that the legislation is right when it is brought forward.

§ Lord Sheldon
My Lords, will my noble friend just reply to this question about the Wicks Committee, which is a very important committee. It said that the legislation should set up what special advisers cannot do. There are some serious matters here, as there have been some claims that they have gone beyond what had been expected, way back to the Fulton Committee. That is a matter that needs to be dealt with with some clarity for the purposes of proper government.

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, the concerns that the noble Lord raised have existed for a number of years. In a sense that is recognised in the code of conduct, which is worth quoting. It states: Special advisers must ensure that, while they may comment on advice being prepared for Ministers by officials, they do not suppress or supplant that advice". Their role is merely advisory. That is understood. I have no doubt that that issue will be covered in the detail of a Bill.