Ministers must approach parliament before media, says Lords committee

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UK ministers and their special advisers should make major policy announcements to parliament before approaching the media, the House of Lords Communications Committee has recommended.

The committee's suggestions were made in a report scrutinising the government's implementation of the Phillis Review from 2004 , which sought to improve government communications.

"One of the most important tasks of government is to provide clear, truthful and factual information to citizens.The accurate and impartial communication of information about government policies, activities and services is critical to the democratic process," the committee said in the report released today.

The aim of the Phillis Review was to ensure that the government's communication policy be based on 'openness not secrecy'.

But ministers have been known to approach 'friendly' journalists outside parliament, rather than allowing MPs the right to question the government first, the committee has claimed.

"An obvious reason for doing this is to secure favourable and prominent coverage for a government policy in return for exclusivity," the committee said.

Failure to follow this guidance could amount to a breach of rules governing ministerial conduct.

"There should be no question of ministers giving policy decisions in advance to favoured journalists or newspapers. Gordon Brown should now remind his ministers of the requirements in the ministerial code," said Lord Fowler, chairman of the committee.

The committee recommended that 'high flying civil servants' should spend time working in the government's communications department or press office and that the number of government press officers had increased by 73 per cent in the last 10 years

In his evidence to the committee in October last year, Sir Gus O'Donnell, cabinet secretary and head of the Home Civil Service, said the rise was a reaction to an increase in political bloggers .