The role of special advisers should be clarified and there must be more transparency about their work

The seemingly nebulous and underhand role of special advisers has featured prominently in many of the government’s recent scandals – most recently in the case of Adam Smith and the handling of the Newscorps bid for BSkyB. Martin Smith argues that the problem is not their existence per se, but a lack of clarity about what they do and transparency about how they do it.