Row over spin leads to 'radical review'

The Government is to run a root-and-branch review of its information service in response to deepening concerns about spin doctors.

The independent inquiry will be headed by the chief executive of the Guardian Media Group, Bob Phyllis, and will include senior journalists and officials in the Government Information and Communications Service (GICS). The Cabinet Office announced yesterday that they had been given a remit to conduct a "radical review" of all government communications.

Godric Smith and Tom Kelly, the Prime Minister's official spokesmen during the Cheriegate row, will play a key role in the review. Other members include David Hill, a former director of communications at the Labour Party, Nicholas Timmins of the Financial Times and Charles Reiss of the London Evening Standard.

The review was announced in response to a critical report published last year by the influential Commons Public Administration Committee into the controversy over Jo Moore. The spin doctor to the former transport secretary Stephen Byers had urged civil servants to use the events of 11 September to "bury bad news".

Ministers also agreed to consider new whistle-blowing guidelines for civil servants in response to the Moore affair. But a report from the Cabinet Office rejected proposals to advertise special adviser posts, arguing that ministers must be free to appoint their own political advisers.

The report said: "The Government believes that it is now timely to consider from first principles the sort of service needed in the highly demanding and constantly changing media world of the 21st century."

Mr Phyllis told the BBC that the review could take evidence from Ms Moore and Martin Sixsmith, the former director of communications at the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions who also lost his job in the fallout from the affair.

Mr Phyllis said: "It isn't only about the role of special advisers, it's about the Civil Service, it's about different methods that might be used to improve the effectiveness of government communications and therefore make a contribution to our democratic society

"I have been assured that what is required is a radical review and an independent review and that is the brief we will be working to."