PublicAdministration Select Committee:Investigation into the Government Information and Communications Service
Recommendations:
each individual special adviser should have a personaljob description which would include their role, if any, with the media andtherefore the Governments Information and Communication Service (GICS)
the Centre for Policy and Management Studies (CPMS)considers whether training could be developed for both civil servants and specialadvisers about their mutual interaction and respective roles
1. The FDA has more than 11,000 members and represents seniormanagers and professionals in public service.Our membership includes senior civil servants and other staff working ingovernment departments, and special advisers.
2. The FDA supports the system of having special advisers withingovernment. This system helps protect,not undermine, the political impartiality of a permanent civil service, assistscivil servants on a day-to-day basis in their work, and helps to supportMinisters.
3. In seeking to protect the political impartiality of apermanent civil service, the FDA supports the recommendations of the Committeeon Standards in Public Life in its Sixth Report in calling for a limit to beplaced on the number of special advisers.The FDA has not offered a particular figure but will consider thisfurther in the context of a wider debate about the content of a Civil ServiceAct. We are concerned that under thecurrent arrangements a Prime Minister could expand the numbers of specialadvisers within government without any apparent constraint.
4. The FDA believes that the Code of Conduct for Special Adviserspublished in July 2001 has been helpful in setting out more clearly work thatis appropriate to special advisers (paragraph 3) in a way that was notpreviously explicit. The publication ofa separate code for special advisers has caused some controversy amongstspecial advisers themselves in that it seeks to draw a clearer distinctionbetween permanent civil servants and special advisers. In practice such a distinction exists andthe separate code is simply a formal recognition of that and can be seen ashelping to support, rather than diminish, the remit of special advisers.
5. Our experience is that in general relationships betweenspecial advisers and permanent civil servants are good and constructive. Where a special adviser is workingeffectively he or she is enhancing the ability of civil servants to do theirjob. The FDA is concerned at the recent tendency, both politically and in themedia, to demonise special advisers. It would be naive to suggest that thereare not tensions but for the most part these are no different to those thatarise between colleagues working in any environment. Where problems have arisen there appear to be two main factors.
6. Firstly, where there is a lack of clarity about the role thata Minister expects an individual special adviser to undertake. Given that no Minister uses their specialadvisers in exactly the same way, eachindividual special adviser should have a personal job description which wouldinclude their role, if any, with the media and therefore the GovernmentInformation and Communication Service (GICS).
7. Secondly, problems can arise in day-to-day workingrelationships if there is a lack of understanding either on the part of a civilservant about what the appropriate role of a special adviser is, or with aspecial adviser who does not fully understand what is and is not appropriate tothe work of a civil servant. The FDAtherefore suggests that the Centre forPolicy and Management Studies (CPMS) considers whether training could bedeveloped for both civil servants and special advisers about their mutualinteraction and respective roles.In addition, the FDA has noted with surprise that special advisersreceive no specific training, and in particular no induction training. This is in contrast to somebody appointedfrom outside the civil service to a civil service post as a result of opencompetition. The FDA therefore suggeststhat structured training, includinginduction training, be developed for special advisers.
8. Forspecial advisers dealing with the media, there is potential discrepancy betweenthe code of conduct and the guidance on the work of the GICS. For example, the Basic Conventions of theGovernment Information and Communications Service require, amongst otherthings, that media activities:
ii. should be objective and explanatory, nottendentious or polemical;
iii. should not be, or be liable to misrepresentation as being,party political
whilst the Code of Conduct for Special Advisersexplains that the work of a special adviser may include:
ix. representingthe views of their Minister to the media including a Party viewpoint, wherethey have been authorised by the Minister to do so
9. TheFDA suggests that the GICS consideradditional advice for special advisers on their relationship with the media.
10. The FDA also welcomesparagraph 22 of the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers which states that:
22 Any civil servant who believes that theaction of a special adviser goes beyond that advisers authority or breachesthe Civil Service Code should raise the matter immediately with the Secretaryof the Cabinet or the First Civil Service Commissioner, directly or through asenior civil servant.
11. However, the FDAbelieves that whilst in most cases the protection set out in para 22 of theCode, which go beyond the provisions of the Civil Service Code, will allowproblems of relationships or activities to be resolved satisfactorily,individual civil servants must have the confidence that perceived breaches willbe dealt with not only by the civil service but will be acknowledged at apolitical level. Even with a CivilService Act, there will be a need andthere is an immediate need for a strong message across Government that thepolitical impartiality of the civil service must be respected day by day interms of relationships between Ministers, special advisers and civil servantsand that the Government will treat seriously, at a political level, breaches ofeither the Civil Service Code or the Code of Conduct for Special Advisersjust as there is an overriding obligation on civil servants of loyalty to theirMinister and the elected Government.
12. The FDA has beenactively campaigning for the introduction of a Civil Service Act, and welcomesthe support given by the Government, Conservative Party and Liberal DemocratParty. We look forward to theconsultation paper being prepared by the Cabinet Office and will wish tocomment more fully in the coming weeks.The FDA believes that there is a number of significant reasons why aCivil Service Act is now appropriate.These include:
The civil service has continued to change over the past150 years. Sometimes that change hasbeen evolutionary, at other times rapid and dramatic as for example during thetwo world wars. Considerable change wasimplemented by the Conservative governments of 1979 to 1997, and the LabourGovernment elected from 1997 has placed public sector reform at the heart ofits agenda, with a reform programme specifically for the civil service. Successive governments have howevercontinued to emphasise their commitment to the underlying values of the civilservice first set out in 1854, and civil servants have felt confident aboutembracing change in the knowledge that those values are not being eroded. The FDA believes that the Civil Service Actdemonstrates a commitment by the Government to maintain those values at a timewhen the pace of change is, if anything, accelerating and civil servants arebeing expected to undertake new roles.
Those underpinning values are moreover not justimportant to civil servants but serve as a guarantee to all citizens that civilservants throughout the UK undertake their many and varied tasks within aclearly-understood ethical and constitutional framework. That in turn assists in the ability of thecivil service to deliver on behalf of Ministers and citizens. It is no exaggeration to claim that thoseunderpinning values are respected throughout the world and serve as a model forcivil servants internationally.
The routes for entry are becoming more varied. Manydepartments are now opening up almost all their more senior posts to externalcompetition. The risks of loss ofimpartiality may be greater, and are certainly perceived to be so, as theconcept of a career service is eroded and more appointments are made on thebasis of specific external experience.
There are likely to be increasing pressures on theRecruitment Code as the civil service culture changes and managers, many fromoutside the civil service, ask why the whole recruitment process needs to be undertakenwithin a central framework. Fair andopen competition is good practice, but there are also cost implications fromthis. It is not clear that theGovernment recognises it is a cost worth paying.
The role and accountability of civil servants vis--visthe citizen, ministers, Parliament, the Crown, departments etc areunclear. This lack of constitutionalunderpinning for civil servants status has been repeatedly highlighted inrecent years.
Devolution has created a new framework for governancewithin the UK. New relationships between civil servants and politicians aredeveloping. With growing diversity in the administration of the UK at nationallevels, an Act would help to clarify the position of those public servantsworking within the civil service or civil services, and provide a clearcomparator for practice adopted in other strata of government and by futurenational governments.
The number of different codes is beginning to createconfusion. There are already codes for civil servants, ministers, specialadvisers, the model contract for special advisers, and the code for theGovernment Information and Communication Service. There is a need to define therelationships properly between the different parts of the Executive and to haveclarity in the relationship between different codes.
13. Theresult of these developments is an increased scope for the traditional valuesof the civil service to be challenged.It is clear that significant changes could be made to the way the civilservice operates without the need for any legislation. Indeed, a Prime Ministerso wishing could make wide-ranging changes without any checks.
14. TheFDA does not see a Civil Service Act as being about inhibiting future change.Rather it is about making sure that any changes are made after meaningfuldebate and within the context of agreed principles and values. In particular, an Act would giveParliamentary support to the political impartiality of the civil service,whilst enabling that underlying value to be interpreted in the light ofchanging circumstances.
15. TheFDA believes that an Act would also help to minimise any potential conflictbetween special advisers and civil servants by reinforcing the importance ofpolitical impartiality within the civil service.
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