Legal curbs on special advisers 'unlikely to be passed'

One of Tony Blair's most senior advisers has revealed that there is no political will in government to pass a Civil Service Act to curb the power of special advisers.

Legislation proposed by Sir Richard Wilson, outgoing head of the home Civil Service, and backed by dozens of MPs was unlikely to be introduced because it does not have a political "champion" in cabinet, said Pat McFadden, a former deputy chief of staff at Downing Street. He said the Cabinet was not willing to push for legislation. Mr Blair is said to oppose the introduction of new rules to ensure that special advisers cannot "bully" civil servants into acting politically.

Giving evidence to an inquiry by a committee on Standards in Public Life, chaired by Sir Nigel Wicks, into the role of special advisers, Mr McFadden said: "One of the reasons [the Civil Service Act] hasn't happened is not because anyone has anything against it, but that up until now it has not had a champion."

Mr McFadden admitted that when Labour came to power there was strife between special advisers and Civil Service press officers which led to the departure of several heads of information. The former special adviser at Number 10, whose role included writing the Prime Minister's speeches, revealed that advisers were often asked by civil servants to communicate bad news to ministers. One of their jobs was to inform ministers if a political decision would make one of their cabinet colleagues "hit the roof". He said the existence of special advisers who could take a political role protected civil servants from crossing the boundary into political advice.

Mr McFadden said that there were incidents where special advisers and civil servants were at loggerheads. But he said such tension was the exception rather than the rule.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat freedom of information spokesman, said he was concerned that special advisers had "corrupted" civil servants, and called for an Act to be introduced and for limits to be set on the number of advisers. "I believe that, rather than blur the line between civil servants and special advisers as has happened in recent years, we need to demarcate it far more clearly," Mr Baker told the committee.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in