Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Tuesday 13th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman has talked to industry about its reaction to the Budget. I think that if he talked to the Institute of Directors, the CBI and the Federation of Small Businesses he would find that they welcome it, because they know it will help them to grow their businesses and grow employment. I only wish that the hon. Gentleman could recognise that and welcome it too.

[Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

16. What recent progress he has made on reducing the cost to the public purse of his Department’s non-departmental public bodies.

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Justine Greening)]

When I looked into whether the Treasury had any non-departmental public bodies, I found that we had just one, the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, which comes up to London three times a year to advise the Chancellor on coin designs. I then tried to find out how much it cost the taxpayer. The answer is nothing, because its charges have been taken over by the Royal Mint, which is an arm’s length Government company. I hope that that answers my hon. Friend’s question.

[Tony Baldry]

Across Government, how many quangos are there, how much taxpayers’ money are they wasting, and how will they be made democratically accountable?

[Justine Greening]

The answers to my hon. Friend’s questions are “Too many”, “Too much”, and “Through the spending review and over the course of the Parliament.”