Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Douglas Carswell Excerpts
Wednesday 7th January 2015

(9 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Douglas Carswell Portrait Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (UKIP)
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T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

Lord Maude of Horsham Portrait The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
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My responsibilities are for efficiency and reform, civil service issues, public sector industrial relations strategy, Government transparency, civil contingencies, civil society and cyber-security.

Douglas Carswell Portrait Douglas Carswell
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The Minister for the Cabinet Office stated in October 2010 that public bodies would be made more meaningfully accountable. Specifically, what new mechanisms has he put in place to make public bodies more meaningfully accountable to this House and, indeed, to the public?

Lord Maude of Horsham Portrait Mr Maude
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Our concern with public body reform has always been to ensure that accountability is improved. A number of functions have been brought within Government to make them directly accountable to this House through Ministers. A number of other activities have been discontinued completely. The number of public bodies has been reduced by about a third. When we came into office, there were no data about the actual number of public bodies. In addition to increasing accountability, we have also saved the taxpayer very considerable amounts of money.