How can ministers bring external support into departments?
There are other individuals, beside officials, who can be brought in to help ministers.
Government ministers are supported in office by permanent civil servants – staff employed by a department regardless of who heads it. But ministers often wish to bring in people from outside of government too, whether for political advice or subject expertise. There are a few ways they can do this.
Special advisers (SpAds)
Special advisers are ‘temporary’ civil servants appointed to support a particular minister. Unlike permanent civil servants, SpAds are exempt from a requirement to act with ‘objectivity and impartiality’, allowing them to offer political advice to ministers.
SpAds are recruited by ministers personally, although the prime minister must sign-off on all appointments. Their employment is tied to a particular minister and so SpAds also lose their jobs when a minister leaves office. All recent editions of the Ministerial Code have stated that cabinet ministers may appoint up to two advisers, but this limit is rarely observed, with the most senior cabinet ministers often having four or five. 20 Cabinet Office, ‘Special adviser data releases: numbers and costs, July 2023’, 20 July 2023, www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-adviser-data-releases-numbers-and-costs-july-2023/special-adviser-data-releases-numbers-and-costs-july-202…
Special advisers support ministers in various ways, including liaising with parliamentarians, the media and external stakeholders; filtering submissions into the ministerial red box; and representing the minister’s views to the department. They are appointed to provide a political lens on the work of government, and tend to divide their roles between policy, communications and parliamentary handling.
Policy advisers (PAds)
Policy advisers are experts who are handpicked by ministers to provide policy advice on a particular topic. They are a way for ministers to make more direct appointments to their department. Unlike SpAds they observe the normal civil service rules and do not undertake party political activity.
A PAd is an ill-defined role, and occupants are often left with an ambiguous remit. The IfG has previously called for their roles to be formalised.
Extended Ministerial Offices
‘Extended Ministerial Offices’ (EMOs) were introduced by the coalition government in 2013. These were intended to give ministers more direct control over their offices, with ministers – not permanent secretaries – taking control of the appointment and management of staff (usually delegating this, in practice, to the principal private secretary). 27 Cabinet Office, Extended Ministerial Offices – Guidance for Departments, 27 November 2013, www.gov.uk/government/publications/extended-ministerial-offices-guidance-for-departments Unlike a traditional private office, EMOs contained a wider range of officials, including PAds, officials working on implementation, and data specialists.
Relatively few ministers, however, chose to set-up EMOs under the coalition. Five departments established EMOs after the 2015 election but the model was withdrawn at the end of 2016, with all existing EMOs scrapped.
Non-executive directors (NEDs)
Non-executive directors are individuals appointed from outside government to sit on departmental boards. These boards exist to advise and challenge departments on strategy, delivery and operational matters, 28 Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, ‘Corporate governance in central government departments’, April 2017, p. 17 although the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs select committee (PACAC) has suggested that their role has expanded beyond these core functions over time. 29 Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, ‘The Role of Non-Executive Directors in Government’, 2022–23, HC 318, June 2023, p. 10. Recent NEDs have included Richard Pennycook, former CEO of the Co-operative Group, and Lord Hill of Oareford, a former Conservative minister.
PACAC, the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) and the IfG have all raised concerns about an increase in the number of NEDs appointed with political backgrounds, especially former MPs and serving members of the House of Lords. This is despite the Ministerial Code specifying that NEDs should be ‘largely drawn from the commercial private sector’. 30 Cabinet Office, Ministerial Code, 22 December 2022, 3.5 While political NEDs may bring relevant experience of government, the CSPL warned that appointing partisan supporters ‘undermines the ability of NEDs to scrutinise the work of their departments’. 31 Committee on Standards in Public Life, Upholding Standards in Public Life: Final report of the Standards Matters 2 review, November 2021, 5.26 In response, the government announced in July 2023 that the appointment of NEDs would be regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
There was a considerable changeover in NEDs at the outset of the new Labour government, with non-executive directors sacked and replaced across many departments, including MHCLG and DHSC. 32 Jameson H, ‘Department ditches NEDs’, The Municipal Journal, 18 July 2024, www.themj.co.uk/department-ditches-neds; Anderson H, ‘Labour launches clearout of DHSC non-execs’, Health Services Journal, 14 August 2024, www.hsj.co.uk/leadership/exclusive-labour-launches-clearout-of-dhsc-non-execs/7037661.article
Direct ministerial appointments
Direct ministerial appointments are appointments made to non-statutory offices, like roles leading a government review or as a ‘champion’ for a specific subject (sometimes referred to as ‘tsars’). This should not be confused with the appointment of non-parliamentarians as government ministers in the House of Lords, also sometimes referred to as direct ministerial appointments.
Such appointments include (but are not limited to):
- Leading a team or body within government, like Kate Bingham, who was appointed chair of the vaccine taskforce (initially a unit of the business department) in 2020 or Adam Hawskbee, deputy director of the think tank Onward, who was appointed chair of DLUHC’s Towns Unit in 2024.
- Leading a government review, like Lord Maude, who was appointed in 2021 to lead a review of civil service governance and accountability.
- Acting as a ministerial adviser, like Lord Walney, appointed as Rishi Sunak’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, or the independent adviser on ministerial interests, Sir Laurie Magnus.
These direct appointments are unregulated, though the government has said that all postholders must follow the Nolan principles of public life and obey the code of conduct for the board members of public bodies. Postholders receive no contract, but may be paid ‘where justified’. 35 Cabinet Office, ‘Direct appointments made by UK government ministers’, 31 May 2022, www.gov.uk/government/publications/direct-appointments/direct-appointments They may not exercise ministerial authority, though may advise ministers.
In July 2023, the government committed to ensure departments published annual lists of all direct ministerial appointments, but no such lists have been produced so far. 36 Cabinet Office, Strengthening Ethics and Integrity in Central Government, CP 900, July 2023, 2.5, 2.6. The government also committed to publish Guidance on Direct Ministerial Appointments – a document written by the Cabinet Office – which also is yet to be published.
Appointments to the civil service by exception
While civil servants must usually be recruited on the basis of a fair and open competition, there are exceptions to these recruitment principles. Among these exceptions, it is possible to make a temporary appointment (up to two years) to fill an urgent need or short-term role. It is also possible to make an appointment without an open competition for those with highly specialist skills deemed unavailable elsewhere in the civil service. This offers a way to bring outsiders into government.
In practice, ministers sometimes ask their officials to exercise these exceptions for them. For example, in summer 2024 there were a series of news stories about Labour ministers asking for former advisers in opposition and donors to be appointed into the civil service via this route.
Appointments to the senior civil service by exception which are made at pay band two (director-level) or above must be approved by the Civil Service Commission. The Commission has a full list of legitimate reasons for exceptions in its latest recruitment principles, published in 2018.
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