Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mark Ferguson and Peter Bedford

Thursday 10th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Peter Bedford (Mid Leicestershire) (Con)]

6. What progress she has made on the review of arm’s length bodies.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mark Ferguson)]

The Government have reviewed all 306 active arm’s length bodies, and we have commitments to reform over a third of them, but we will go further. Devolution by default means that we will transfer functions of arm’s length bodies to local leaders or return them to Departments, because all critical decisions should be taken by Ministers who are directly accountable to Parliament and the public.

[Mr Bedford]

There are actually over 400 quangos in existence, which spend over £390 billion a year—that is £1 in every £3 spent by the Government. Last year, Ministers promised a full review of those quangos; as an accountant, we would call that zero-based budgeting. Will the Minister tell the House how many of those bodies have been scrapped and how much has been saved?

[Mark Ferguson]

I am afraid that the hon. Member appears to have not fully heard my initial response, which I believe addresses a lot of the issues he has raised. His question was about arm’s length bodies, so of course I answered on arm’s length bodies—there are 306 of them, and we are reviewing over a third. I would have hoped that he would welcome that, because devolution by default means restoring powers to where they should be, with democratic accountability.