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All political parties say they want to devolve to local government, including handing over some of the powers and responsibilities exercised by agencies or quangos. John Smith argues that such a move would save millions – as well as increase efficiency All political parties are committed to localism/Total Place/devolution/subsidiarity in some form or another... Well, they often are in the run-up to a general election. So it would be wise to take anything they say now with a large pinch of salt. But this time, it could be different, with the cloud of recession having a potential silver lining of a real re-balancing of power from the centre to local government. All oppositions talk about a ‘bonfire of the quangos' but, in office, are seduced by the opportunity to exercise significant power of patronage. Some of the suggestions emerging from the main parties are clearly bonkers – such as selling off the Dartford Bridge? or elected police commissioners? – and irrelevant. But a real – and substantial – saving could be made, not only by abolishing the nonsensical farragos of unelected and largely-unaccountable bodies, such as regional government and police authorities, and transferring their powers to local government, but by a serious look at the quangos which control so much of our lives, and which have practically-zero accountability. The unelected lack of accountability is, no doubt, welcome to most of those concerned, but can be a major contributory factor to waste on a gargantuan scale. So, what exactly is a quango? A useful starting point is the Cabinet Office publication, Public bodies 2008. This lists 790 non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs), often thought of as coterminous with quangos. These had an annual spend of £43bn and a staff of almost 93,000 in 2007/08. From 1980 to 2008, the Cabinet Office provided a consistent measure of NDPBs, readily accessible in the Public bodies series, for anyone to consult. But from 2008 onwards, Public bodies did not – and will not – contain detailed information on each public body. Every government department now publishes information on its own public bodies on an annual basis. Cock-up or conspiracy? You decide. Even given Public bodies, the quango state, which extends much wider than NDPBs, is difficult to track down on any central basis. The list of NDPBs excludes agencies such as the DVLA or the Rural Payments Agency (see box), among many others, since they are, in official parlance, agencies rather than NDPBs. Confusingly, some bodies called agencies, such as the Environment Agency, are not agencies but NDPBs. Outside most lists of quangos are bodies such as primary care trusts (PCTs) and police authorities. These are already in the main stream of debate as being prime candidates for absorption by local government, and the tide of argument is moving strongly in favour of this solution. Rural payments agency Staff – 4,297 Budget – £255.8m Payments to farmers – £1.6bn Estimated process cost per payment – £1,743 Estimated cost per payment in Scotland – £285 Number of farmers – 107,000 Average amount paid per farmer – £15,300 EU penalties for errors – £280m Estimated additional bill to taxpayers – £622m NAO verdict – ‘Scant regard to protecting public money' Responsible department – DEFRA Sources: RPA annual report, Hansard, The Times So why should anyone be advocating that quangos also be absorbed by local government, wherever possible? Quite simply, because local government is the most accountable and effective part of government. It could make very significant savings in the cost of practically any quango you care to name without affecting frontline services. This is what any government ought to be aiming for – but it will be opposed by most of the quangocracy and have to be fought for hard by local government. Some quangos will probably have to remain rather than be absorbed by local government, returned to the Civil Service, or sold off. Among them are regulators, but some of these, such as the Environment Agency, can be greatly attenuated and some, such as Ofcom, ought to be made seriously to look at their salaries – with 11 out of the top 100 salaries of public servants, something seems out of kilter at Ofcom. And, believe it or not, despite evidence of staggering incompetence, the Government has sneaked through by ‘statutory instrument' the ability for the check Rural Payments Agency (RPA) to use the Proceeds of Organised Crime Act – known colloquially as Kafka's Charter – enabling it to seize assets from its ‘customers'. Natural justice might indicate that farmers ought to seize the RPA's assets under a notional Proceeds of Disorganised Incompetence Act. So, it's a real opportunity for local government – go for it! John Smith is chairman of Public Appointments Ltd

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WHITEHALL

It really is time to have a bonfire of the quangos

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