During a debate on civil service reform in the House of Commons, James Wild MP questioned the government’s commitment to reducing bureaucracy, highlighting the contradiction between its pledge to cut the number of quangos and its decision to simultaneously establish dozens of new public bodies.
James raised concerns that the growing number of quangos risks weakening accountability and making government less efficient. Many of these organisations operate with limited direct ministerial oversight, raising questions about transparency and democratic accountability.
Quangos are publicly funded bodies that operate independently of ministers but carry out government functions. Despite their distance from central political decision making, they are responsible for significant areas of public policy and service delivery. Currently, around 60% of public spending is managed through such bodies.
Speaking in the House of Commons, James said:
“The minister talks a good game about scrapping quangos and I support the review he announced to reduce the size of the bureaucratic state. Why then, despite the rhetoric, are the Government at the same time creating dozens of new quangos?”
In response, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden MP, said:
“This is another debate, which has gone on for many years and relates to the question of headcount—Governments can magically reduce headcount by creating a quango somewhere, but the headcount may not have changed at all. What is informing the drive this time is the fiction that an arm’s length body can somehow absolve Ministers of responsibility. It does not work like that in the real world. Sometimes there is a good case for having an arm’s length body, but in the end, we know that accountability will be with Ministers.”
