Background and Policy Objectives
3.Controversy about the number, cost and disciplinary regime applicable to special advisers caused the Member to investigate the arrangements within the devolved institutions elsewhere in the United Kingdom. This comparison revealed that whereas there are 16 special advisers in Northern Ireland there are only 7, plus two part-time, in Wales and 14 in Scotland. The last full year for which figures are available (2015/16) shows Northern Ireland’s special advisers cost £2,027,835.05, whereas in Scotland the cost in 2017/18 was £1,045,486 and the pay bill cost in Wales in 2018/19 was £814,069 (plus £119,636 in net severance payments). It is also notable that in Scotland half of the special advisers are employed on the lowest pay band.
4.In the question of discipline, the Committee for Social Development investigation into "the Redsky affair" highlighted that though an independent fact-finding investigation by DFP recommended the minister's special adviser should be subject to disciplinary investigation, his minister was able to intervene and abort any such course of action. Thus raising for the Member the adequacy of the current arrangements.
5.The unpublicised exercise of prerogative powers in 2016 by the First Minister and deputy First Minister to amend the Civil Service Commissioners (Northern Ireland) Order 1999, so as to permit the arbitrary appointment of a handpicked 'spin doctor’, provoked controversy and unease which the Member proposes to address in this Bill by requiring any amendment to this legislation to be subject to the affirmative resolution process of the Assembly.
6.The very last motion passed (without division) by the Assembly before its collapse in January 2017 endorsed expanding the role of the Standards Commissioner to include alleged breaches of the Ministerial Code.
7.The evidence to the RHI Inquiry exposed a number of matters directly relevant to the positions and conduct of special advisers and the functioning of government, including:
8.Additionally, the absence of a publicly available register of interests for Ministers and special advisers appears as a gap in accountability, as does any requirement to keep the functioning of government under review.
9.Though the document ‘New Decade, New Approach’ anticipates measures to address some of the above matters, none of it would be on a statutory basis and, therefore, lacks binding assurance. Accordingly, the Member proposes to address these issues in this Bill.
10.The Act has fifteen objectives: