Memorandum submitted by the Cabinet Office
1. This memorandum outlines what the Government
Information and Communication Service (GICS) is, how it works,
its relationship with Ministers, civil servants and party press
offices, and the arrangements for co-ordinating Government's dealings
with the press both across and within Government.
2. Much of this ground was covered in the Report
of the Working Group on the Government Information Service
whose recommendations were endorsed by the Prime Minister when
he presented the report to Parliament on 27 November 1997 (HC
Deb. col. 604). The memorandum can therefore be relatively brief
as full supplementary material is to be found in the Report.
THE PURPOSE
AND ROLE
OF THE
GICS
3. The effective communication and explanation
of policy and decisions is an integral part of the Government's
duty to govern. The Government has a duty to explain its policies:
it looks to the GICS to help it discharge that duty professionally
and in a politically impartial manner.
4. The GICS is a cross-government service made
up of some 1,000[1]
communication specialists employed to engage in the full range
of information activities, equipped to meet the demands of a rapidly
changing media world, and led and organised to achieve co-ordination
across government and within departments. Members of the GICS
are employed and managed by individual departments to help deliver
departmental aims and objectives, set within the following strategic
objectives drawn up centrally by the GICS for its members:
— to create and maintain informed opinion
about the subjects on which each department deals;
— to advise on the presentational aspects
of departmental policies, proposals, and programmes;
— to use all suitable and available
methods of publicity to help departments achieve their objectives.
5. The GICS has a career structure ranging from
assistant information officer to director of information. The
head of the GICS is responsible for the well-being of the Service.
He has oversight of standards of professional practice, recruitment,
training and promotion; and represents the interests of the GICS
within Government. He is consulted on succession planning for
senior GICS posts, and any member of the Service can look to him
for advice and support, particularly on matters of propriety and
professional integrity in accordance with the values and conventions
set out in the Guidance on the Work of the Government Information
Service, the latest version of which was issued by the Prime
Minister in July 1997 (reproduced as Annex B of the Report
of the Working Group on the Government Information Service.
6. All GICS recruitment and promotion is through
professionally-designed assessment centres, tuned to the needs
of the posts involved. Open competition has always been a major
source of recruitment. Senior posts (team leaders in Whitehall
in press and publicity offices) have, until recently, normally
(but not exclusively) been filled by internal competition from
within the GICS. The tendency now, as part of an on-going initiative
to develop closer working relationships between press offices
and policy civil servants, is to advertise vacancies throughout
the Civil Service encouraging interchange between the GICS and
policy staff. Open competition at senior levels is also encouraged,
where appropriate, enabling people to be brought in with skills
not readily available from within the GICS in line with practice
in the rest of the Civil Service.
THE 1997 REVIEW
OF THE
GICS
7. The review was established in September 1997
at the request of the then Head of the Home Civil Service. Its
remit was to consider proposals to respond to concerns about how
far the GICS was equipped in all areas to meet the demands of
a fast changing media world, to build on the skills and resources
of the GICS, and to maintain the established propriety guidelines.
The Group reported in November 1997 summarising its main proposals
on the first page:
— "to improve co-ordination with,
and from, the centre, so as to get across consistently the Government's
key policy themes and messages;
through a new strategic communications
unit serving the whole Government;
through a reformed Cab-E-Net system;
through clearer rules on attribution;
— to improve co-ordination within each
government department so that Ministers, their special advisers,
their press officers and their policy civil servants all play
their part in the coherent formulation and communication of policy;
— to bring the practice and procedures
of all government press offices up to the standards of the best,
geared to quick response round the clock with help from a new
central monitoring unit;
— to retain a politically impartial
Service, and to sustain the trusted values of the service embodied
in its rules of guidance;
— on the basis that communications
is an integral part of policy formulation, to develop closer and
better working relations between policy civil servants and press
offices;
— to offer high quality management
and leadership, staffing and training and development tailored
to meet the needs of the 24-hour media world."
IMPLEMENTING THE
REVIEW'S
RECOMMENDATIONS
8. Good progress has been made in implementing
the Review's conclusions.
— The Strategic Communications Unit
(SCU) was launched by the Prime Minister in January. The Unit
comprises two information officers, two special advisers, two
administrators and a small support staff. It reports through the
Chief Press Secretary to the Prime Minister and it is responsible
for pulling together, and sharing with, departments, the Government's
key policy themes and messages. It has relaunched the No. 10 website
and is co-ordinating the production of the Government's Annual
Report.
— AGENDA (the replacement to CAB-E-Net)
was launched initially on a pilot basis at the beginning of the
year, becoming fully operational at the end of February. It is
a strategic media planning tool maintained, under SCU supervision,
by Communication Planning Units in departmental information divisions
which provide and maintain event information on the system together
with their top ten running issues and key departmental themes.
— Clearer rules on attribution came
into force upon publication of the Report. The twice-daily
briefing of the Lobby went on-the-record with the Chief Press
Secretary identified as the "Prime Minister's official spokesman",
and other No. 10 press officers identified as "an official
Downing Street spokesman". Other press officers and special
advisers are also expected to speak "on the record"
unless agreed otherwise.
— A Media Monitoring Unit was established
in December and ran initially as a three month pilot. The pilot
was a success and the Unit now provides departments with daily,
updated media summaries derived from the Unit's monitoring of
all major broadcasting channels and the national newspapers.
9. A full progress report is in preparation
and will be sent to the Committee when complete.
CO -ORDINATION
OF PRESENTATION
AND POLICY
ACROSS GOVERNMENT
10. The overall political strategy, direction
and style of the Government is set by the Prime Minister. He appointed
his Chief Press Secretary as a special adviser to lead the No.
10 Press Office to drive and sustain the essential messages and
key themes which underpin the Government's strategy. The No. 10
Press Office seeks to give a clear sense of the Government's purpose
and direction, liaising closely with departmental press offices
in order to:
— do the advanced planning (e.g., clearing
of major bids and announcements—as set out in paragraph
88 of the Ministerial Code) which is needed to secure a
timely and well-ordered flow of significant government communications,
so that actions or announcements by individual departmental Ministers
both fit in with and reinforce the political strategy and direction
set by the Prime Minister and Ministers collectively;
— support departmental press offices
in building up close working relationships with Ministers and
their special advisers and policy civil servants, relationships
which are the prerequisite not only for planning but also in generating
the capability to make effective rapid responses to stories tending
to undermine the Government's strategy;
— agree how best departmental communications
(whether positive or responsive) can play into the broader government
messages and themes and, by fitting in with this bigger picture,
signal the coherence of what the Government as a whole is doing.
11. The role of the Minister without Portfolio
is to assist the Prime Minister and other Ministerial Colleagues
in the strategic implementation and effective presentation of
government policy. The Minister without Portfolio chairs daily
early morning meetings to bring together key players from No.
10 (including the Chief Press Secretary), the Cabinet Office,
the Chief Whip's Office, the Party, the Treasury, the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office and the Deputy Prime Minister's Office.
This forum ensures that strategy and presentation are in step,
that immediate presentational issues are handled within the wider
strategic context, and that there is due separation of Government
and Party business.
12. Responsibility for dealing with current
stories is also agreed at these meetings enabling handling and
lines-to-take to be disseminated throughout Whitehall.The Chief
Press Secretary is also responsible for the twice-daily Lobby
briefings, and he has introduced new arrangements whereby notes
of the briefings are circulated to departmental press offices
immediately after they have taken place.
13. The whole thrust of these arrangements and
the changes made since May has been to make communication an integral
part of the policy process—neither a dominant factor nor
an afterthought but an important component in the successful development
and implementation of policy.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
THE GICS AND
MINISTERS, POLICY
CIVIL SERVANTS,
SPECIAL ADVISERS
AND PARTY
PRESS OFFICES
14. Each Ministerial head of department is responsible
(and personally accountable to Parliament) for the decisions,
actions and expenditure of his or her department. In exercising
this responsibility, individual Ministers have their own
duty to inform the public, and are supported in that role by an
Information Unit or Division largely staffed by members of the
GICS. There are 17 heads of information in Whitehall, comprising
eight long-standing GICS members; three new GICS members recruited
by open competition; one new GICS member recruited by Whitehall
trawl; and five administrators appointed by departmental process.
15. The general working relationship between
GICS and policy civil servants has become closer as the approach
noted at paragraph 13 has begun to take effect across departments.
16. Cabinet Ministers can also, with the approval
of the Prime Minister, appoint special advisers to advise
them on the development of government policy and its effective
presentation. Special advisers are subject to the provisions of
the Model Contract for special advisers, which explains that Special
Advisers can discharge their duties with a degree of party political
commitment and association which would be impermissible for a
permanent, politically impartial civil servant. The permanent
Civil Service press officer, bound by the requirements of political
impartiality, cannot operate in the area of political advocacy;
the special adviser, bound by the Model Contract (itself founded
in the Civil Service Order in Council) cannot normally manage
staff or run executive operations. nevertheless, in many areas
of communication, each can play distinctive and legitimate roles.
17. Care is needed, and is being taken, to make
the relationship between special advisers and Civil Service press
officers work:
— both parties, under Ministerial authority,
must recognise their proper role, and the different constraints
under which they both must operate;
— Press officers and special advisers
who are active in communication matters must keep in close personal
contact to ensure that the messages, endorsed by their Minister,
are delivered consistently;
— Cabinet Ministers should ensure that
good working relationships exist between themselves and press
officers and special advisers so that each enjoy trust and mutual
confidence.
18. The Model Contract addresses the relationship
with Party press offices:
"the Government needs to present its policies
and achievements positively, in order to aid public understanding
and so maximise the effectiveness of its policies, and that is
a legitimate use of public funds and resources. It would be damaging
to the Government's objectives if the Government Party took a
different approach to that of the Government itself, and the Government
will therefore need to liaise with the Party to make sure that
party publicity is factually accurate and consistent with Government
policy." (Schedule 1, Part 1)
The central arrangements for achieving this—in
a way that draws a clear and proper line between Government and
Party—are noted at paragraph 11 above.
CONCLUSION
19. The Government welcomes the Committee's
interest in the Government Information and Communication Service.
The Government has a duty to explain. The GICS is at the forefront
of its effort to discharge this duty effectively and in accordance
with the well-established propriety conventions.
May 1998
1 Around 760 in Whitehall Departments and Next Steps
Agencies of which some 370 are departmental press officers; 40
are multi-disciplinary; and 350 are marketing, publications and
other specialists. The remainder work in non-Ministerial Departments
and the Metropolitan Police. Back
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