Remember one of the early acts of the Coalition Government in 2010, a short-lived attempt to do away with the UK regulator the Security Industry Authority, part of a larger effort, a ‘bonfire of quangos’ as bureaucratic and burdensome to business? Such armโs-length bodies (ALBs) are responsible for spending about ยฃ265 billion a year of taxpayersโ money. A report by the Public Accounts Committee of MPs says that progress on long-promised reforms and a big cut in the number of โquangosโ as they are also known โhas been limitedโ.
Dame Meg Hillier, London Labour MP and Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: โThe famous โbonfire of the quangosโ of a decade ago notably failed to spark and in fact weโve seen Government wave through half-baked business cases for arms-length bodies too often since. The public appointments to lead these bodies lack transparency and accountability to an extent that poses a real risk to the reputation of the organisation and so to how Government delivers objectives using them.
“Government must begin to properly account for the vast ยฃ265 billion of taxpayersโ money a year spent by ALBs, starting at the point of why theyโre set up in the first place, and demonstrate who is genuinely the best person to lead and deliver through an open, fair and transparent public appointments process.โ
The committee report recalled that the Cabinet Officeโs Public Bodies Reform Programmes were ‘designed to drive a simplified, cost-effective system of delivery through ALBs’. As background: some 295 such bodies identified in the Cabinet Officeโs 2018โ19 public bodies dataset, down from 463 in 2016. The report said: “The scale and independence of these bodies can vary massively, from large organisations such as NHS England and Ofsted to much smaller bodies like the Boundary Commission for England and the Family Justice Council. Together they account for over ยฃ250 billion of public expenditure each year and employ roughly 300,000 people.”
Among its recommendations, the report says that poor data and legacy IT are a barrier to effective oversight of its armโs-length bodies; and those legacy issues should be addressed.
For more on the Inquiry visit the UK Parliament website.
