A special adviser (SpAd) is a temporary civil servant who advises and assists
UK government ministers
or ministers in the Scottish and Welsh devolved governments. They differ from impartial
civil servants in that they are political appointees.
Special advisers are paid by the government and appointed under Section 15 of the
Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. There are four pay bands for special advisers.
Background
Special advisers were first appointed from 1964 under the
Harold Wilson's
first Labour government to provide political advice to Ministers and have been subsequently utilised by all following governments.
Code of conduct
Advisers are governed by a code of conduct which goes some way to defining their role and delineates relations with the permanent civil service, contact with the media and relationship with the governing party, inter alia:
the employment of special advisers adds a political dimension to the advice and assistance available to Ministers while reinforcing the political impartiality of the permanent Civil Service by distinguishing the source of political advice and support ..Special advisers are employed to help Ministers on matters where the work of Government and the work of the Government Party overlap and where it would be inappropriate for permanent civil servants to become involved. They are an additional resource for the Minister providing assistance from a standpoint that is more politically committed and politically aware than would be available to a Minister from the permanent Civil Service.
The rules for their appointment, and status in relation to ministers, are set out in the
Ministerial Code
The Ministerial Code is a document setting out "rules" and standards for government ministers in the United Kingdom. Separate codes exist for ministers of the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive (based on the St Andrews Agreemen ...
.
Number and cost of special advisers
Number
There is no legal limit on the number of special advisers, although the current total is less than it was under
Tony Blair. The government had previously accepted calls, made in 2000 by the Neill Committee on Standards in Public Life, for such a legal cap. By 2002, however, the government had altered its position, saying in response to the Wicks Committee report on standards in public life that "the Government does not believe that the issue of special advisers can be considered as a numerical issue. The issue is about being transparent about accountability, roles and responsibilities and numbers".
Cost
The total cost of special advisers in 2006–07 was £5.9 million,
[Numbers and Cost of Special Advisers](_blank)
written statement by Gordon Brown, 22 Nov 2007 : Column 147WS, Hansard
''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official prin ...
which has since increased to £9.6 million for 2018–19.
There are four pay bands for special advisers.
Current Pay Band 4 special advisers
As of 31 March 2020, there were 101.7
full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a ...
special advisers working for the government.
As of July 2021, the following advisers were included in a government list of special advisers in Pay Band 4:
Criticisms
Special advisers have sometimes been criticised for engaging in
advocacy while still on the government payroll or switching directly between
lobbying roles and the special adviser role.
Being a special adviser has become a frequent career stage for young politicians, before being elected
Members of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
, which has attracted criticism.
In fiction
Fiction set within the
Westminster village
The Westminster Bubble (also called the Westminster village) is a characterisation including members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as being isolated from life outside Parliament. As well as referring to Members of Parliament and Peers, ...
frequently includes characters that are special advisers, such as Frank Weisel in ''
Yes Minister
''Yes Minister'' is a British political satire sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on BBC2 from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, ''Yes, Prime Minister'', ran for 16 episodes fr ...
'' and Glen Cullen in ''
The Thick of It
''The Thick of It'' is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of British government. Written and directed by Armando Iannucci, it was first broadcast for two short series on BBC Four in 2005, initially with a smal ...
'' at the ministerial level, and figures like Malcolm Tucker (also of ''The Thick of It'') seen operating at the apex of power, often overriding or manipulating Prime Ministers and other world leaders.
Shortly after
Boris Johnson became
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
in 2019, British Comedian
Josh Berry gained online media attention for his character Rafe Hubris, an arrogant,
Eton-educated SpAd at
10 Downing Street, who calls Johnson 'BloJo', his chief of staff
Dominic Cummings 'Big Daddy Cum-Cum' and health secretary
Matt Hancock
Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 201 ...
'Matt Cock-in-his-Hands'. In 2021, Berry published a spoof diary ''Staggering Hubris'', written in Hubris' voice, purporting to tell the "real story" of the chaos behind the scenes as the British government attempted to deal with the
Coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
.
See also
*
Special adviser (Norway)
A special adviser or special advisor ( nb, spesialrådgiver; nn, spesialrådgjevar) is a high-ranking civil servant in the Norwegian civil service with rank code (''stillingskode'') 1220 in the Norwegian state. The Ministry of Finance has stated ...
UK Government efficiency, transparency and accountabilitypage, which includes regular reports listing special advisers
Footnotes
External links
Guidance - Special Advisers: code of conductCurrent version; updated as required
{{British special advisers
British Prime Minister's Office
Politics of the United Kingdom