Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry examining botched energy scheme
Arlene Foster's former ministerial adviser faces inquiry panel for first time
Inquiry set up after public concern over scheme's huge projected overspend
Retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Patrick Coghlin chairing inquiry at Stormont
Public evidence sessions expected to last until well into 2018
Image source, RHI InquiryDr Crawford tells the inquiry owed no duty to the DUP in his role as a ministerial adviser.
He says was appointed by the minister to work as an adviser - he wasn't appointed by the party.
He was working for the minister and the department "rather than others, for example policy staff who would have been employed by the DUP".
Dr Crawford is asked whether or not there was a hierarchy of advisers.
Mr Aiken refers to documents that other advisers run past Timothy Johnston (below, left), who was the DUP adviser to then first minise Peter Robinson at the Office of the First and deputy First Minister (OFMDFM), for confirmation that they could be released.
"When there was an issue that was controversial we worked together," Dr Crawford says.
OFMDFM advisers had greater experience and worked to the first minister, he adds.
Dr Crawford says advisers "were there to decide - ministers were there to decide".
His time as an adviser took him through four Stormont departments, working under three ministers and five permanent secretaries and he says "at all times I've had good working relationships" with those around him.
Asked if there was any training on how to perform the functions of an adviser when he started the role in 2007, Dr Crawford says he can't remember any.
But he adds that Richard Bullick (above), who was then a DUP adviser and who had experience of the role in the previous Stormont administration, "would've given us the dos and don'ts".
Others, including civil servants, gave him advice about what the role entailed, he says, adding: "No matter what you do you can always get more help, more guidance, more assistance."
Image source, RHI InquiryDr Crawford still does part-time advisory work with the DUP, he tells the inquiry.
His main job is running his farm, "small as it may be", and he also helps out with his family's dairy business.
Dr Crawford resigned as a DUP ministerial adviser in January 2017 after claims had been made that he had exerted influence to keep the RHI scheme open at a time when it was spiraling out of control.
At the time of his resignation he was working with then minister Michelle McIlveen at the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
Dr Andrew McCormick told a Stormont committee that Dr Crawford was the civil servant exerting influence over the RHI scheme
Dr Crawford says the claim that was made against him by the then permanent secretary at DETI Dr Andrew Crawford (above) "runs at contrary to what I was doing and what evidence I can produce to the inquiry".
Dr Crawford says he believed his role as a ministerial adviser should've been conducted in the background but at that time he was coming under the spotlight from the media and politicians.
Explaining his resignation, he says: "I always believed if you became the story you couldn't advise behind the scenes."
Image source, Getty ImagesInquiry counsel Mr Aiken skips through the code of conduct for ministerial advisers, which says they should "conduct themselves with integrity and honesty".
They also "should not misuse their official position or information acquired in the course of their official duties to further their private interests or the private interests of others".
It adds that they "should not without authority disclose official information which has been communicated in confidence in the administration".
Dr Crawford explains his former role as a special adviser as one of "bridging the gap between the ministers and the politics... and the department that you're working within".
It took "quite a bit of work behind the scenes" to make sure that policies ministers were pursuing "could get through the system and agreed".
Image source, RHI InquiryAs an adviser, Dr Crawford was appointed as a temporary civil servant at a senior level and was expected to conform to all of the usual civil service code of ethics, except for the provisions regarding impartiality and objectivity.
There is an additional code of conduct for advisers, which explains that they exist to provide ministers with expert advice "while reinforcing the political neutrality of the permanent civil service".
Dr Crawford tells the inquiry he has deleted emails "touching upon or relevant to" the RHI scheme.
He explains that he "regularly deleted emails before this inquiry started" and it was a "routine thing that I done".
Image source, Getty ImagesHe notes that some of the emails he has deleted have made appearances at the inquiry in evidence from other witnesses, and they relate to planned changes to the scheme in 2015.
The deletion of emails was not a deliberate act and was not related to the RHI Inquiry, he insists.
After taking the oath, Dr Crawford takes his seat.
The inquiry's junior counsel Joseph Aiken will be asking the questions.
Image source, RHI InquiryYou can find Dr Crawford's written statement on the inquiry's website, external.
His cousin Richard Crawford, who is a claimant on the RHI scheme, has also provided a statement to the inquiry, external.
A son of a farmer from Beragh in County Tyrone, Dr Andrew Crawford is a former employee of the Ulster Farmers' Union.
He was an assistant to the former DUP MEP Jim Allister before the North Antrim politician quit to form the Traditional Unionist Voice.
Dr Crawford was an adviser to Arlene Foster when she was enterprise minister during the time the RHI scheme was created, and followed her to the Department of Finance and Personnel.
Former DUP minister Jonathan Bell accused him of preventing the closure of the scheme, but Dr Crawford denied that.
He was also named by senior civil servant Andrew McCormick, in a hearing of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Public Accounts Committee, as the adviser who exerted influence to keep the scheme open - although Dr McCormick said he had no evidence for his claim.
Dr Crawford resigned as a DUP ministerial adviser shortly after that but denied Dr McCormick's claim and said he had "acted with complete integrity".
BBC News Northern Ireland
An official denied that civil servants at Stormont's agriculture department kept the lucrative nature of the RHI scheme to themselves as their "interests lay with farmers".
Cathal Ellis, a renewable energy expert in the department, told the inquiry that suggestion had no foundation.
Image source, RHI InquiryIt emerged that the department understood the overgenerous nature of tariffs eight months after the scheme opened in 2012.
Its officials attended a 2014 event that showed a biomass boiler costing £36,000 had earned £35,000 in subsidies in its first year of operating.
BBC News Northern Ireland
An independent inquiry into the RHI scandal was established in January last year by the then finance minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir.
He ordered it in the wake of the huge public concern and what was then a developing political crisis surrounding the scheme.
The RHI Inquiry began in November and Sir Patrick Coghlin (below), a retired Court of Appeal judge, is its chair and has been given full control over how it will operate.
Image source, PacemakerIt will look at:
For more information on the RHI Inquiry, you can read our handy Q&A.
When the scale of the overspend emerged, public and political concern rocketed.
As the minister in charge of the Stormont department that set up the RHI scheme, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster faced calls to resign from her role as Northern Ireland's first minister in December 2016.
Image source, PAShe resisted, and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness then quit as deputy first minister in protest at the DUP's handling of what had by then become a full-blown political crisis.
That move brought about the collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive. Now, more than a year on from that, Northern Ireland remains without a devolved administration.
You can find much more detail on the RHI scheme in our need-to-know guide.
The budget of the RHI scheme ran out of control because of critical flaws in the way it was set up.
Claimants could effectively earn more money the more fuel they burned because the subsidies on offer for renewable fuels were far greater than the cost of the fuels themselves.
The most recent estimate for the overspend was set at £700m, if permanent cost controls aren't introduced.
The massive overspend bill will have to be picked up by the Northern Ireland taxpayer.
The Renewable Heat Incentive scheme - or RHI for short - came to the fore of the Northern Ireland public's knowledge in late-2016... and the fallout from the scandal attached to it is still being felt in the region's politics today.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe scheme was set up by the Northern Ireland Executive in 2012, as a way of encouraging businesses to switch from using fossil fuels to renewable sources for generating their heat.
Those who signed up were offered financial incentives to buy new heating systems and the fuel to run them.
Welcome along to Stormont's Senate chamber for what promises to be an intriguing day at the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Inquiry.
We'll shortly be hearing from the latest star witness of this investigation - the former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) adviser Andrew Crawford.
He was Arlene Foster's right-hand man when she was the minister at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) at the time of the set-up of the RHI scheme.
Proceedings begin shortly, so stick with us throughout the day for all the action.