Limit spin doctors, committee insists

Lord Neill: "Concerns" over number of spin doctors

The Neill Committee on Standards in Public Life has launched its annual report reiterating concerns that the government has failed to limit the increase in the number of its spin doctors.

The report has also raised the issue of the anti-sleaze watchdog's independence, and asked for a guarantee that it can choose which areas of public life to look into.

The committee was set up five years ago by former prime minister John Major in the wake of growing sleaze allegations against MPs, with a remit to ensure ethics and standards in public life.

In January this year the committee published its sixth report into Standards in Public Life, which recommended that the powers of spin doctors should be restricted.

It also asked the prime minister to ensure his Cabinet colleagues observed the ministerial code that limits them to two special advisers per department, and recommended that records should be kept of ministers' meetings with lobbyists.

The government has given priority to spin over substance...the effect is to undermine the impartiality of the civil service

Andrew Lansley MP

Response awaited

The annual report outlines these recommendations again and notes that the committee is concerned that the government is yet to act.

Earlier this month, committee chairman Lord Neill told the Commons Public Administration Committee that the government's delay was "disappointing."

He admitted he would have expected a response from the government within three months.

A Downing Street spokesman has now promised that Number 10 would respond to the recommendations next month.

Special advisers trebled

In its January recommendations, the committee expressed worries about the rise in the number of spin doctors appointed since Labour came to power.

Whitehall as a whole has seen the number of advisers double to 79, and Number 10 now employs 25 political staff, three times as many as under John Major.

The committee said that advisors' influence should be limited and that a code of conduct should be introduced to stop the work of spin doctors interfering with that of politically neutral civil servants.

It also recommended that all appointments should be subject to a debate and vote in parliament, and that a clear distinction should be made between political and expert advisers.

Cost of spin

They also registered concerns about the cost of political advisers to the taxpayer.

In May, Cabinet Office minister Mo Mowlam admitted to MPs that the salary bill for the government's special advisers will top £4.3m this year.

"Spin over substance"

The Conservatives Cabinet Office spokesman Andrew Lansley said the government's delay in responding showed a "disregard for public and expert opinion".

Pledging that the Conservatives would cut the number of advisers, he said: "the government's vast increase in the number of special advisers shows the priority they have given to spin over substance."

"The effect is to undermine the impartiality of the Civil Service and the effectiveness of government."

The report follows confirmation that the government's official spokesman, Alastair Campbell, has been given a new role at Downing Street overseeing strategic communications.

This means he will conduct fewer face-to-face briefings with political journalists.