We have accepted that the time has come - particularly now Sir Richard has endorsed it - that there should be a Civil Service Act

John Prescott Deputy Prime Minister

Sir Richard Wilson recommended a limit on the number of politically-appointed spin doctors through a new Civil Service Act.

Demands for such an act have escalated since the transport department spin row which saw the departures of press chief Martin Sixsmith and spin doctor Jo Moore, who suggested 11 September was a good day to bury bad news.

'Interesting ideas'

Sir Richard, who holds the post of cabinet secretary, has been urging the government to tighten the rules to protect the impartiality of civil servants and give them a legally-enforced complaints procedure.

This would make it easier for a whistleblower to expose improper practices.

Sir Richard set out his ideas for reform in a private speech on Tuesday.

Mr Prescott said: "Sir Richard made clear there will be a consultative document and indeed there will be.

Prescott: The time has come for a Civil Service Act.

"He gave us some interesting ideas on how we might consider, in a consultative document prior to a Civil Service Act, how we might improve these relations.

"We are all agreed. We have accepted that the time has come - particularly now Sir Richard has endorsed it - that there should be a Civil Service Act.

"It is quite a major and fundamental change and we have to get it right."

'Teenyboppers'

He side-stepped issues surrounding the timing for the bill's introduction to parliament.

Mr Prescott, who once described Labour's back-room staff as "teenyboppers", said an act would allow MPs to scrutinise a commissioner's annual report on the state of the civil service and bring special advisers much more under their supervision.

He accepted that there were disputes about the role of special advisers.

Sir Richard wants to protect Whitehall's impartiality

"I have had comments to make about special advisers, but... Sir Richard Wilson said he thought advisers did a very good job. He was quite warm on that.

"What he said was the problem was that sometimes the relations can vary between individuals.

"Let us be clear about that relationship, let's set it in a proper framework and adopt the government's own policy, which is to provide a Civil Service Act."

Measures to formalise relations between civil servants and advisers, including the special advisers' code of conduct, model contracts and pay scales had already be formalised by the government, he said.

Tim Collins, shadow minister for the cabinet office, said there was now a cross-party consensus in favour of a Civil Service Act.

Legal force

In his speech, Sir Richard argued that unless there was legislation to curb the number of special advisers and give legal force to the rules governing their conduct, the issue would continue to "fester" damaging both the government and the civil service.

And he warned that the dangers of politically impartial civil servants being drawn into the political arena were growing.

He set out a series of proposals to ensure political appointees, like Ms Moore, did not "undermine" the role of civil servants.

He said special advisers should:

• Have no role in the recruitment, promotion or management of permanent civil servants

• Not interfere in the assessment of civil servants' performance and pay

• Work under the direction of the minister who appointed them, who in turn must take responsibility for their actions and conduct.

Sir Richard said: "The basic responsibility for special advisers, for their selection and their actions, should rest with the minister who is accountable to parliament for them."

Sir Richard also condemned unauthorised leaks by civil servants, which he described as "deeply corrosive".

But, he added, there was a need for a better grievance procedure for civil servants who felt special advisers were abusing their position, in order to "reduce the temptation to leak to the press or opposition".

Sir Richard stressed that he did not believe the civil service was being politicised, but he acknowledged that the conditions in which civil servants worked were changing.