Recommendation RHI-6: Special Adviser Role Clarity
From The Report of the Independent Public Inquiry into the Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme, published 13 March 2020.
Recommendation
(i) Under existing arrangements, Northern Ireland Ministers should be responsible for their Special Advisers. (ii) New or returning Ministers should be invited to convey to the relevant Permanent Secretary, and make transparent to the Department, how the Minister expects his or her Special Adviser to fulfil their role in relation to considering submissions and associated background documents. (iii) There should be clarity with regard to the Minister's and the Special Adviser's respective roles in terms of reading, advising and commenting upon submissions, technical reports and other documentation advanced as a basis for ministerial decisions. (iv) The advisory role of the Special Adviser in relation to ministerial decision-making, including the sequencing of consideration by the Special Adviser and the Minister, should be clearly set out for officials to understand. (v) This should include provision for exceptional circumstances in which, and the means by which, the usual procedures may need to be adapted, for example in cases of particular urgency or when a Minister is abroad on official business or on leave.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry recommended clarifying ministerial responsibility and procedures for Special Advisers considering departmental submissions. In October 2021, the Northern Ireland Executive accepted the recommendation, stating that revisions to codes of conduct and new ministerial guidance addressed it, while noting that delivering induction programmes was still required and without mentioning submission sequencing or exceptional circumstances (Northern Ireland Executive response, Oct 2021). In October 2024, the Northern Ireland Audit Office found that the recommendation had been implemented (Northern Ireland Audit Office, Oct 2024).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 5 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
These recommendations can be accepted in full, with the exception of the consideration of an independent mechanism to assess special advisers’ compliance with the Code of Conduct.
They have been addressed through work to date, including:
• revisions to the Ministerial Code of Conduct, Code of Conduct for Special Advisers and NICS Code of Ethics, and the introduction of new Guidance for Ministers;
• the publication of new enforcement arrangements for ministerial standards of behaviour;
• agreement on the development of a multi-year outcomes-focussed Programme for Government, aligned with the Budget, including stakeholder engagement and consultation;
• departmental induction and briefing for Ministers on the return of the Executive, and Executive away-days;
• the strengthening of Private Offices including the higher grading of the Private Secretary and Assistant Private Secretary roles;
• identification of the team where matters of policy in respect of Special Advisers are to be dealt with.
Further work is required to:
• deliver induction programmes for Ministers and for special advisers;
• arrange for publication of relevant interests of civil servants.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: These are the Northern Ireland Executive's words from Annex A, "Summary of Recommendations and Response", published on this page with the Executive Response to the RHI Inquiry Report Recommendations and Action Plan on 7 October 2021, the day the Executive agreed it. The Department of Finance publishes the response, but it is the Executive's, so the site records it under the Executive. The annex is a PDF that the publisher asks automated readers not to fetch, so the site cites the page that links it.
Site note: Annex A gives this passage once, for the recommendations under its heading "MINISTERS AND SPECIAL ADVISERS": recommendations 5, 6, 7, 25, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43. It is the Executive's response to the group, not to this recommendation alone.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Northern Ireland Executive has been found in the sources searched (last checked 31 January 2026). This is separate from the response above.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
NI Audit Office (15 October 2024)
Implemented.
Site note: This is the Northern Ireland Audit Office's assessment, from Appendix 4 of its second report on the Inquiry's recommendations (15 October 2024), the column "2024 NIAO Assessment". The Audit Office monitors implementation at the Inquiry's request; its assessment is shown beside the Executive's own account and does not set the recommendation's status.
Site note: The report assesses this recommendation in 3 parts and gives no assessment of the whole; the row carries its assessment of the first part.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Northern Ireland Executive
Response - NI Audit Office
Finding