Oral Answers to Questions

Chloe Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 5th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

7. How many non-departmental public bodies his Department has abolished to date.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Miss Chloe Smith)]

This Government have undertaken the biggest programme of quango reforms in a generation to increase accountability, cut duplication and reduce costs. We have already reduced the number of public bodies by about 200, and by 2015 the overall number will be down by a third.

[Mr Spencer]

I welcome my hon. Friend to her new position and wish her well. What help and support have the Opposition given on the quango reform programme?

[Miss Smith]

That is a very appropriate question, because Government spending on quangos doubled under Labour, and by 2015 this Government will save the taxpayer a total of more than £2.6 billion, which is more than £150 per working household. It tells us all we need to know about Labour that it voted against those measures.

[Andrew Selous]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the growth of the quango state under the last Government significantly reduced accountability to the taxpayer, and that many of these organisations had overpaid chief executives and overly smart offices, greatly increasing the cost to the public purse?

[Miss Smith]

I agree. The range of responsibilities handed to those bodies and the amount of taxpayers’ money they received was at an all-time high under the previous Government, and they were clearly irresponsible for doing that. This Government are restoring accountability for public services.

[Lindsay Roy (Glenrothes) (Lab)]

11. On this Government’s quest to have a bonfire of the quangos, will the Minister confirm that the Health and Social Care Act 2012 will create more quangos than the Public Bodies Act 2011 abolished?

[Miss Smith]

The Department of Health is reducing the number of quangos, not increasing them.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

On behalf of my party, may I congratulate the hon. Lady on being appointed to her new position?

Every Government and every Parliament have promised to do what her Government have promised to do on non-departmental public bodies. Will she abide by the judgment of the people in two years’ time, close to the end of this Parliament, in respect of how many of these NDPBs have fallen by the wayside?

[Miss Smith]

The hon. Gentleman raises a vital point. More than half the quangos in government will be reformed. There will be no return to the old ways of working. He is right, too, that we need to be accountable in this process, which is why we are instituting triennial reviews and other measures in order to ensure we keep on this path.

[Andrew Stephenson (Pendle) (Con)]

5. What recent assessment he has made of the second round of National Citizen Service pilots.