1 Introduction
1. There are currently over 900 public bodies
in the United Kingdom. They perform a range of tasks from regulating
industry to providing guidance and protection to consumers. Some
advise on senior appointments while others act as stewards of
national assets, promote changes in public behaviour or provide
expert scientific advice to Government. A number are responsible
for the distribution of large amounts of taxpayers' money in the
form of grants to business, universities and research bodies.
As the Institute for Government's (IfG) recent report notes "they
[public bodies] are fundamental to the effective running of the
British state".[1]
2. Nevertheless, there are a number of long standing
concerns about public bodies - or "quangos" (quasi-autonomous
non-governmental organisations) as they are often less affectionately
known. Such concerns normally focus on a combination of three
complaints: the cost and perceived "wasteful" spending
by these bodies; a sense that they are unaccountable for decisions
that they take; and the regulatory and bureaucratic constraints
that they impose on the rest of society.
3. The Coalition's Programme for Government stated
that it would "reduce the number and cost of quangos."[2]
The emergency budget announced significant reductions in the number
of public bodies and savings of £500 million.[3]
Since then the Government has conducted a review of all public
bodies to identify further reductions. It has also introduced
the Public Bodies Reform Bill [Lords] to give it the powers
required to implement its reforms.
4. These are not new promises for an incoming
Government to make; in 1979, Margaret Thatcher was elected on
a promise of a 'bonfire of quangos' and in 1997 Tony Blair came
to office with similar pledges. Whilst both abolished some organisations
and merged others, neither achieved reform on the scale that was
initially pledged.[4]
Definitions
5. Discussion about public bodies is made all
the more confusing by the language involved. Non-departmental
public bodies (NDPB), arm's length bodies (ALBs), quangos, public
bodies, executive agencies, non-ministerial departments, and independent
statutory bodies all clutter the lexicon, with the differences
between them not always being apparent.
6. In the interests of clarity this Report uses
the following terms in the following way:
i. Arm's length bodies (ALBs)
describes the totality of public sector organisations that are
separate from a central department; and
ii. Executive agencies
refers to departmental business units for which ministers are
directly accountable but which are separate from the central department
for administrative reasons;
iii. Public bodies
describes any public sector organisation that a minister is not
directly accountable for;
iv. Quangos - where
witnesses have used this term we have assumed it to be equivalent
to our use of the term arm's length bodies, unless they specified
otherwise.
Our inquiry
7. We examined the Government's review of public
bodies and a range of related topics that emerged from this process.
Over the course of this inquiry, we received written submissions
from 15 organisations. We held a total of three oral evidence
sessions where were heard from: public bodies, unions, academics,
think-tanks, lobby groups and Rt Hon Francis Maude MP, Minister
for the Cabinet Office, who was responsible for the review. We
also commissioned the National Audit Office to provide guidance
on how the Government should manage the reorganisation of public
bodies. We would like to thank all those who contributed to our
inquiry.
1 Institute for Government, Read Before Burning:
Arms' length government for a new administration, July 2010,
p10 Back
2
Cabinet Office, The Coalition: Our Programme for Government,
May 2010, p16 Back
3
Institute for Government, Read Before Burning, p10 Back
4
Ibid Back
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