Press Releases
The Essential Guide to British Quangos 2005
PRESS RELEASE
2005
In the wake of Sir Peter Gershon’s report and the David James Report on how to make Whitehall savings, now we have The Essential Guide to British Quangos 2005, just released by the Efficiency In Government Unit. Since 2003, the Government has refused to publish an update to the Directory of Public Bodies, so the Efficiency in Government Unit has decided to do it for them.
But it goes much further than that. Author and Director of the EIG Dan Lewis says “Where possible, we have obtained figures about their annual cost to the taxpayer, as well as defining their tax, regulatory and funding powers. Nobody has actually done this before. That’s why this is the Essential Guide”.
What the publication reveals:
• There is huge duplication of effort in quangos - particularly in areas such as the environment, energy, sport and tourism
• A listing of the 10 most costly quangos
• A listing of the most useless quangos
• A listing of the highest employers
• A listing of the highest paid quangocrats
• The oldest quangos, dating back to 1514 which continue to make a genuine contribution as museums
• At least 113 new quangos have been set up since 1997
What is to be done?
• A public enquiry into the billions spend on regional development agencies and assorted regional councils and cultural organisations which appear to be almost entirely wasted.
• A statutory five year limit - a sunshine clause - on Executive Quangos.
• A statutory limit on the number of quangos per Government Department.
• All levy-funded quangos must be subjected to proper democratic control and all compulsory levies - taxation without representation - should be ended.
• A statutory crowding-out appraisal to be implemented before the creation of any new Quango. Today many quangos with huge budgets are crowding out privately financed charities and lobbies.
• Transparent funding arrangements for all Quangos – to include the cost of seconded civil servants within a single annual public funds expenditure figure.
About Efficiency In Government
The Efficiency in Government Unit is a joint undertaking between the Economic Research Council (www.ercouncil.org) and the Centre for Policy Studies (www.cps.org.uk). The unit believes that more capital must be released to the private sector through greater government efficiency to tackle these growing threats to the economy:
1) A prospective decline in the size of the working population which has just peaked
2) A decline in the economic trend growth rate
3) A decline in revenue from North Sea Oil and Gas
4) A decline in the profit margins in some of Britain's leading industries
5) A decline in competitive advantages in tax and regulation in the global marketplace and regulation due to pressures for harmonisation and standardisation throughout Europe
6) A decline in stockmarket performance since 1997
7) The rising costs of energy prices
8) Globalisation providing many alternative choices for higher margin and faster returns on capital, much of which will no longer be domiciled in the UK
9) A decline in Foreign Direct Investment
10) A decline in the negotiating power in trade issues of the UK Governmentthrough a weakening European Union
