Andy Coulson row prompts inquiry into role of political advisers

Further embarrassment for David Cameron as MPs prepare to investigate the appointment and influence of government 'spads'

David Cameron is facing another potentially embarrassing inquiry in the wake of the row over his employment of Andy Coulson, as a parliamentary committee prepares to investigate the appointment and influence of special advisers.

Bernard Jenkin, Tory chair of the public administration select committee, said the inquiry would consider the vetting procedures for new special advisers and how to avoid conflicts of interests, after this week's revelations that Coulson, a former editor of News of the World, was paid by News International while employed by the Conservative party.

Jenkin said he was keen to investigate whether advisers to ministers should be subjected to pre-appointment interviews with parliamentary committees, which are usually preserved for the most high-profile government appointments. Such interviews would be held in parliament and allow MPs to vet a minister's preferred candidate for a so-called "spad" job and question them in public.

Jenkin said that in light of the increasing influence of special advisers, they should be subject to more scrutiny. "Special advisers have historically been a confidant and personal friend and ministers have been held accountable for their actions," he said. "But it's quite clear that they are increasingly constitutionally important and the question is about whether they should more openly be held accountable.

"Andy Coulson is by no means the first special adviser who has had to resign and there were plenty of examples under the last Labour government of people who should never have been appointed special advisers," he said.

If the committee agrees to go ahead with the inquiry when parliament returns in September, it would be free to look at some of the most controversial aspects of the hiring of the former journalist by Cameron and George Osborne, including the vetting procedures he underwent before entering Downing Street.

It could also examine how to ensure that special advisers are not receiving payments from potentially conflicting sources.

The parliamentary standards commissioner confirmed this week that he is considering a complaint about Coulson's apparent failure to register payments and benefits he received from News International while holding a parliamentary pass ? allowing him access to most of the parliamentary estate ? sponsored by David Cameron from 2007. Archived registers of parliamentary pass holders, on which they are required to declare any income, benefits or gifts they receive from organisations that could be seen "in any way" to conflict with their work in government, reveal that throughout the time Coulson had a pass, he made no declarations about his continuing income from News International.

Tom Watson, the Labour MP and member of the media select committee who has campaigned against phone hacking at the News of the World, wrote to the standards commissioner to complain about the apparent omissions. The Conservative party was left on the defensive by the revelations because it had previously issued a "categorical" denial to the Guardian that Coulson had received income from NI during his employment, apparently after receiving assurances from Coulson.

Before the election Cameron pledged to reduce the number of special advisers after controversy over Labour's reliance on them. Brown employed 78 before last year's election and Cameron cut that number by 10. But in the past year it has crept back up to 74.

William Hague's adviser Christopher Meyer resigned last year after Hague was forced to deny rumours of an "inappropriate" relationship. It followed unease in Downing Street at his judgment in appointing a 25-year-old with little apparent expertise in foreign affairs. In 2009 Damian McBride, a special adviser to Gordon Brown, was forced to resign after it emerged he had plotted to set up a website to smear Tory politicians, communicating the plans using his Downing Street email address.

Cameron's pledge to crackdown on "spads" triggered problems with the Liberal Democrats in government claiming that they had too few advisers to properly perform their functions, and accusations that the Tories had employed loyalists on short-term contracts to the civil service, which allow them to fast-track chosen people into posts without a round of interviews. Jenkin said an inquiry would also be free to investigate the blurring of lines between civil servants and special advisers.

The home affairs committee and culture, media and sport committees are conducting inquiries into wider questions raised by the hacking scandal and the prime minister has commissioned Lord Justice Leveson to undertake a major independent inquiry.