MPs demand safeguards to stop 'bullying spin doctors'

Civil servants who find themselves being bullied by special advisers should be able to "blow the whistle" to prevent a repeat of the Jo Moore affair, an influential committee of MPs said yesterday.

The Government should inform civil servants of their legal right to report malpractice under the Public Interest Disclosure Act, introduced to protect whistleblowers.

"We urge the Government to ensure that the benefits of that legislation are felt as widely as possible in the Civil Service and that officials are given every opportunity to register their anxieties properly," the MPs said.

The report by the Public Administration Select Committee also concluded that "spin has dogged the life of this government" and that the role of spin doctors, including Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's communications chief, should be reviewed.

The MPs concluded that the press and Government were engaged in "a mutual spinning war" and that in future Governments "should play it straight" and "the media [should] play it fair."

An analysis of the events surrounding the resignation of Stephen Byers, found that internal warfare had ripped apart his department and that normal controls were unable to cope with Jo Moore, his special adviser.

The report concluded that Ms Moore was an "unusually active" special adviser, who assumed "executive" and "management" tasks "without reference to proper procedures".

Ms Moore, who prompted a crisis in the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions after she sent an e-mail claiming that September 11 was a good day to bury bad news, was beyond dismissal by Sir Richard Mottram, the Permanent Secretary, because of her close political relationship with Stephen Byers.

They found that, since Special Advisers were appointed politically by the Secretary of State, the perception in Whitehall was of there being "one law for special advisers and one law for the rest."

"Sir Richard Mottram was ultimately powerless to control Ms Moore because she could be perceived to be appealing above his head to the political protection for the Secretary of State." The MPs said the political lead should have "come from Mr Byers".

The examination of the events which led to the resignation of Ms Moore, Stephen Byers, and Martin Sixsmith, the head of communications, concluded that there was "a flawed system" in Whitehall for managing special advisers.

"The story of DTLR demonstrates serious flaws in the management and accountability of special advisers. Neither the Secretary of State nor Sir Richard Mottram were able, or willing, to ensure that the rules were followed by Ms Moore and the small group in department who wished to damage her," the report said.

It said that a small group of civil servants had breached "basic public service principles" and were behind damaging leaks to the press. Tony Wright, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said that "internal war" had gripped the department and the "system" could not cope.

"When a special adviser appeared to cross the boundaries, management did not seem able to cope. Career civil servants, gripped by a sense of unfairness, took the law into their own hands by leaking to the media," he said. "Everybody was a loser, and the important issues were lost in the fog of internal war."