MPs slam ‘Bonfire of Quangos’

In October last year, the Coalition Government announced it was reducing the number of such bodies from 901 to 648 in what was coined as the “Bonfire of Quangos”: it was heralded as a flagship policy.

But in a new report, the Commons Public Administration Select Committee has poured scorn on the review and accused ministers of seeking excessive powers to axe even more.

The MPs say the hypothetical savings to be made were “probably exaggerated” in pre-election promises and that slashing spending required more fundamental decisions about cutting state roles altogether.

And returning direct responsibility to Ministers for some roles risked undermining other forms of accountability and could mean that issues got lost in wider Whitehall remits, they concluded.

“The current approach is not going to deliver significant cost savings or result in greater accountability,” the cross-party group concluded after a comprehensive review.

‘No meaningful consultation’

“There was no meaningful consultation, the tests the review used were not clearly defined and the Cabinet Office failed to establish a proper procedure.”

Ministers had “failed to recognise the realities of the modern world” and missed an opportunity to show its “Big Society” agenda in action by handing more powers to charity, the MPs said.

And “badly drafted” legislation needed more safeguards to prevent Ministers abusing wide powers to abolish and reform a swathe of other bodies in future.

“The whole process was rushed and poorly handled and should have been thought through a lot more.” Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin MP

The committee is chaired by senior Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, who issued a stern criticism to the Government over the process – overseen by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude.

“The whole process was rushed and poorly handled and should have been thought through a lot more,” he said as the report was published.

“This was a fantastic opportunity to help build the Big Society and save money at the same time, but it has been botched.

“The Government needs to rethink which functions public bodies need to perform and consider transferring some of these functions over to mutuals and charities.”

The report found that the series of tests set out by ministers to judge the future of bodies against were “hopelessly unclear” and had not been applied consistently.

More consideration should be given to handing responsibility for some areas to charity, the report suggested, in line with the “Big Society” agenda.

And it said it “contains insufficient safeguards to prevent the misuse of powers by Ministers” – something which has already led to several defeats in the House of Lords.

The report also took a swipe at the Cabinet Office for apparently claiming as “completed” in its business plan a key part of the Quango reduction process which was not finished.

Government defends plans

Mr Maude today defended the plans, but admitted the Coalition had been quick to cut the number of unelected organisations. He said it had to “get on with it” and could not afford to “sit around” having a “leisurely” review.

He added that the cuts would save “significantly more” than £1 billion and argued that the review started with a “hugely chaotic landscape” and about 40 Quangos were still being reviewed.

“Of course there are going to be costs. If you re-organise anything there will be transient costs of restructuring, but the savings will be very much more than that,” he said.

“Under the previous Government they didn’t know how many Quangos there were and we kept finding more as we went on.”

He added: “What we can’t do, as governments have done in the past, is set up these bodies and then just forget about them.

“So I wasn’t willing that the Government should sit around and have a long review, we want to get on with it.”