Special Advisers

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Special advisers ('spads') are popularly seen as malign figures- 'people who live in the dark'. The focus remains on well-publicised controversies, on a single role ('spin') and on a tiny number of special advisers (eg Alastair Campbell or Andy Coulson or Dominic Cummings). But in fact we know very little about special advisers: who they are and what they do has not been properly documented.

So to provide a stronger evidence base about the role and impact of special advisers, this project, which ran from 2012 - 2014, asked: who are special advisers; how are they appointed; what do they do; and how can their role and effectiveness be improved? To answer these questions we constructed a database of all special advisers then appointed, and conducted semi-structured interviews with special advisers, their ministers and civil servants.

We intended to move the policy debate on from a negative attitude to accepting the presence of special advisers in government and discussing how to improve their effectiveness. Special advisers exist for a reason: Ministers need them. Ministers can feel overwhelmed by the civil service and the information overload. That is why, in spite of calls for a cap, the number of special advisers has continued to rise: from 70 under Blair to just over 100 under Johnson.

The project looked at the work of special advisers under three different governments: the Conservative governments of 1979-97; the Labour governments of 1997-2010; and the coalition government 2010-15. We found that special advisers needed better induction and training, and far more support and supervision once in post in order to improve their effectiveness. To help with this we produced a Handbook for Special Advisers, and a book which reported our main findings and conclusions. For other resource materials, articles, database and research notes, see Outputs below.

The project team consisted of Robert Hazell, Ben Yong, Peter Waller, David Laughrin, Brian Walker, Hilary Jackson and a research assistant, Max Goplerud. This project was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.