§ Mr. SalmondTo ask the Prime Minister (1) what changes have been made to the arrangements for pre-election contacts between senior civil servants and opposition parties since the evidence by the then Head of the Civil Service to the Treasury and Civil Service Committee on 27 November 1985; [57954]
(2) if the contacts between senior civil servants in the Treasury and the then shadow Chancellor before the 1997 General Election were directed exclusively to questions of organisation. [57955]
§ The Prime MinisterThe current arrangements for pre-election contacts between senior civil servants and Opposition parties do not differ significantly from those in place in 1985. The only substantial change since 1985 was agreed after the 1992 General Election to take account of the fact that, under our electoral arrangements, it is only the last possible date for the next General Election that is known in advance. At the suggestion of the then Leader of the Opposition, the then Prime Minister agreed that it should be possible for such contacts to take place from 16 months before the 1992 Parliament would complete its maximum five-year term. Previously, contacts had been allowed to begin in the last six months of a five-year Parliament, an arrangement which was considered to have precluded effective contacts before the 1983 and 1987 General Elections.
The format for such contacts remains essentially the same as that set out by the then Head of the Home Civil Service in 1985. The purpose of the meetings is to allow Opposition parties to inform themselves of factual questions of departmental organisation and to inform senior civil servants of any organisational change of Government. Such meetings are confidential on both sides. These were the arrangements governing all contacts in the run-up to the 1997 Election.