Civil service 2: Should the functions of quangos pass to local authorities?

The UK’s coalition government announced the ‘bonfire of the quangos’ in 2011

Hundreds of publicly funded government agencies were to disappear, improving accountability and reducing costs.  The Hansard Society reported in 2017, however, that in the five years since the Public Bodies Act came into effect, ‘the proposed bonfire of the quangos has failed to ignite’.

In fact, according to a National Audit Office report from March 2014, 285 public bodies were abolished, apparently saving over £2.6bn, but 184 new organisations were created at the same time, 66 of whom are companies in which the government owns some or all of the shares.

A ‘shake-up of top jobs’ across the civil service, overseen by Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove was reported in June

Recent departures include those of Sir Mark Sedwill, cabinet secretary, head of the civil service and national security adviser, Sir Philip Rutnam, a former permanent secretary at the Home Office and Sir Simon McDonald, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office.

These arm’s-length bodies become closed little worlds, invested with great power, hard to hold to account, fiercely unwilling to take blame

In a recent article, former MEP Daniel Hannan recaps:

“Clandestine migrants from France are able to enter the country without fear of deportation, but tourists making the same journey are subjected to two weeks of house arrest. Play by the rules, fill out the forms correctly and give your real name, and the system will pursue you. Break into the country illicitly and you’ll eventually be given leave to remain. Is this deliberate policy? Of course not. Every Home Secretary, Labour and Conservative, has sought to toughen our border controls . . .

“Our exams are run by Ofqual. (“Keep the politicians out of the picture!”) Our healthcare system is removed from political oversight. (“Hands off our NHS!”) Our epidemic preparedness is left to Public Health England. (“Listen to the experts!”)”

Charles Moore cites NHS England as being ‘the most glaring example of responsibility swerved’: “It employs 1.2 million people, making it the largest public-sector employer in Europe. Its chief executive, Sir Simon Stevens, is accountable for more than £120 billion of annual spending. Yet he has been almost invisible to the public since Covid-19 hit the fan. We have little idea whether he did right or wrong. We have to listen to the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, instead”

Hannan continues: “How, then, did we react when these public bodies got it wrong”?

• Did we pursue Ofqual, with its armies of directors, strategists and press officers, over the failure of its exam algorithms?
• Did we complain about the NHS’s calamitous decision to send unscreened patients into care homes in readiness for a tidal wave that never came?
• Did we demand to know why, as late as March, PHE was still mainly fretting about unhealthy meals?

Of course not. With a neat mental sidestep, we suddenly called these agencies “the government” and directed our rage at the politicians.

Hannan ends: “Tthe pandemic has highlighted the need to overhaul the government machine; it is now an urgent national priority.

“Almost every minister who has struggled through the past six months now grasps what has gone wrong. self-appointed and self-sustaining, quangos pursue their own priorities even when they flatly contradict the Cabinet’s stated objectives, but that then proves useless when called on to discharge its designated functions.

He proposes that, where possible, the functions of quangos should pass, not to MPs, but to local authorities. Let county and metropolitan authorities raise the bulk of their own revenue. Let them reassume primary responsibility for the relief of poverty. Let them – or perhaps the elected police commissioners – set local sentencing guidelines. Give residents a direct say through local referendums.

 

 

 

 

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