TONY BLAIR has abandoned much of his informal style of government inside Downing Street after criticism of the way in which important decisions were taken in the David Kelly affair.

The Hutton inquiry has been unable to obtain a full account of meetings of the Prime Minister’s inner circle of advisers, often sitting casually on sofas in his office, or “the den”, because minutes were usually not taken.

In recent weeks, Mr Blair has taken steps to ensure that proper procedures are not only followed but also seen to be followed. Downing Street’s 9am meeting is now attended by minute-taking civil servants and is often held in the Cabinet Room.

Aides and officials are complaining about the tide of paperwork engulfing their desks and say they are more wary of making unguarded comments. E-mails are now written on the basis that they could end up in the public domain. Many of the inquiry’s most significant disclosures were in e-mails and the Cabinet Office confirmed yesterday that it was keen to retain such messages for eventual release into the National Archive.

“We are keeping a watchful eye on new technology and are developing systems to ensure the retention of e-mail documents,”a spokesman said.

The noise of stable doors banging shut has been reverberating across Whitehall and White City even before Lord Hutton sits down to write his report. The inquiry has exposed personal and systematic failures within the Government and the BBC and changes being made within these institutions are designed to anticipate some of the inquiry’s conclusions.

The departure of Alastair Campbell as Mr Blair’s communications director had been expected and was not directly related to the Kelly affair. But the subsequent reform under which his successor, David Hill, has been denied Mr Campbell’s executive powers over civil servants reflects the constitutional concerns underlined by the inquiry on the influence wielded by political appointees in Whitehall.

Mr Blair’s spokesmen have become sensitive to any accusation of spin. Official briefings have become defensive and dull, while aides are reluctant to talk even off the record on telephones for fear of who might be listening.

The BBC has been beset by a similar crisis in confidence. Newspaper articles written by its journalists, such as Andrew Gilligan, who used one article to allege that Mr Campbell had “sexed up” the Iraq dossier, are discouraged — if not banned — while a review of the practice is completed. Those still allowed to write columns are censored by executives whose job it is to ensure that any views expressed will be politically anodyne.

Controversial reports are subject to similar contraints. A BBC item on Wednesday claiming that the Iraq Survey Group had found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction repeatedly emphasised that the allegations had been put to the Government and included lengthy statements from official spokesmen. The Corporation’s acknowledgment that its case was damaged by Mr Gilligan’s “loose use of language” means that correspondents are more likely to follow a tight script instead of engaging in chats with their presenters.

Some BBC reporters fear that the Kelly affair will signal the end of investigative journalism and force the BBC back to the risk-averse, even deferential, style which characterised its past.

The furore could hardly have come at a worse time for the BBC, coinciding with the Government’s review of its charter. Ministers have not been impressed by the role played by BBC Governors and may use the affair as an excuse to hand the board’s regulatory powers to Ofcom, the new broadcasting watchdog.

But the Government knows it may also have to introduce legislation such as a Civil Service Act, which it has long since resisted, to clean up its own backyard.

The scale of any further changes will depend on Lord Hutton’s conclusions. His remit is a narrow one: to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly.

His interventions during the inquiry have focused on questions such as the conduct of the BBC, the preparation of the dossier and the duty of care owed by the Government to Dr Kelly. Lord Hutton’s previous verdicts have been marked by a cautious precision rather than by hyperbole and vanity.

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