Public Bodies Reform

Andrew Turner Excerpts

Thursday 14th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

I am pretty sure there will be no such loss. If functions need to be carried out, the expertise deployed in doing so will be maintained.

[Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con)]

How will the Minister ensure that quangos handed back to the Government do not generate more costly parliamentary questions?

[Mr Maude]

The number of parliamentary questions generated is not a matter of where functions sit within government, but generally a matter of how many questions my hon. Friend and other colleagues in the House ask. If bodies become more democratically accountable through the House, they will be subject to more parliamentary questions—by definition—but it seems to me that that is a good thing and not a bad thing. That is what accountability is about.