by Charlotte Gill, Telegraph
Billions are spent funding public bodies each year. If Labour is serious about overhauling the system, this is where they can start
Could Labour really be about to unleash another “bonfire of the quangos”? Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, certainly appears minded to do so. Earlier this week, it was reported he had written to ministers asking them to justify all quangos operating under their departments as part of a drive to “rewire” the state and wage war on “waste”.
Currently, there are more than 300 quangos (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations), or arm’s length bodies, as the Government calls them, in operation. The list includes regulators, advisory bodies and cultural institutions which are taxpayer-funded, albeit not directly controlled from Whitehall.
Combined, the organisations employ nearly 400,000 staff and received some £350 billion of public funds in 2023, the latest year for which data is available.
But they have long been a love/hate affair for governments of all stripes. Hundreds were abolished under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in the first “bonfire of the quangos”.
And, now, they’re back in ministers’ sights. But while Sir Keir Starmer’s government has already taken aim at NHS England – often described as “the world’s biggest quango” – it has also created dozens more quangos (including the Fair Work Agency and the Independent Football Regulator) since coming to power, leading critics to question whether Labour is going far or fast enough when it comes to overhauling the system.
The Telegraph has compiled a list of six quangos that might serve as a starting point for ripping up the “quangocracy”.