Rees-Mogg tells ministers to prepare for bonfire of the quangos
QUANGOS such as the DVLA could be closed or merged under a cost-cutting overhaul of public bodies ordered by Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The minister for government efficiency has written to Cabinet ministers warning that the cost and number of quangos “continues to increase”.
He has asked each secretary of state to provide a list of government bodies that could be merged or shut down, including where their functions “could be provided by organisations other than the state”. It comes ahead of a public bodies “review programme” launch this week to identify cost savings at individual quangos. The Treasury had told public bodies to cut costs by 5 per cent, but ministers now want to raise that to between 10 and 20 per cent.
Steve Barclay, Boris Johnson’s chief of staff, pledged in this newspaper in February that the Government would take “a step back from people’s lives” as it sought to “restore a smaller state”.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Taxpayer’s money should be spent efficiently and on worthwhile areas. We should always look at public organisations and whether they are delivering.”
A Whitehall source said there had been a “total failure” by the DVLA “to provide the public service it is meant to”. The agency has come under fire for a backlog of licence applications and renewals in the wake of the pandemic.
Highways England has faced criticism over the safety of smart motorways and MPs’ concerns about Public Health England’s handling of the pandemic led to its replacement with the UK Health Security Agency last year.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance has also called for little-known bodies such as the Civil Society and Youth Directorate and Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner to be ditched.
The campaign group has said High Speed 2 Ltd, the government-owned firm constructing the HS2 rail line, should be overseen by an independent commission, following years of controversy over its spiralling costs.
Mr Rees-Mogg told BristolLive that he was “still constantly writing to DVLA on behalf of my constituents to get them driving licences and we know that the DVLA was simply not working properly with people working from home. That’s very unfair on my constituents.”
So-called “arm’s length bodies” such as the DVLA now spend more than £220 billion per year and employ in excess of 300,000 people, according to government figures.
Mr Rees-Mogg has embarked on a drive to end the work from home culture. Dave Penman, who leads the FDA union for civil servants, criticised as “crass and condescending” a note left by the Cabinet Office minister in an empty government office: “Sorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.”
In the letter to secretaries of state Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Necessary public bodies are an important delivery mechanism for the Government. The cost and number of these bodies continues to increase. Public bodies should only exist when there is a pressing need, must be accountable to Parliament and be efficient and effective.” He added: “Please review your public bodies for any that you consider could be provided by organisations other than the State and therefore closed.”
He asks for ministers to provide “a list of your public bodies sponsored by your department” and “your proposals to close and merge bodies from that list” by June 24. Last year the Commons public accounts committee warned that quangos were being insufficiently scrutinised by government departments.
When the Conservative Party was last in opposition, quangos and quangocrats were a favourite, and merited, target for attack. The preponderance of public bodies under New Labour led Michael Howard to declare that while quangos “came to help and protect us… now we need protection from them”. David Cameron, meanwhile, promised in 2009 to slash the number of public bodies and stop ministers from hiding unpopular decisions behind the quangocrat’s “cloak of independence”. Their disappearance from public debate might give the impression that Mr Cameron succeeded. Would that it were true. Public bodies now account for £220billion of spending and employ 300,000 people.
It is not a moment too soon, therefore, for Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister for government efficiency, to take up the mantle of quango-slayer. As well as campaigning to get civil servants back into their offices, Mr Rees-Mogg, this newspaper reports, has asked all secretaries of state to provide a list of government bodies that could be merged or closed. Top of the list for replacement appears to be the DVLA.
This should not become some quixotic campaign in which the deep state protects its budgets on the basis of “public safety”. As Mr Rees-Mogg himself has written, some quangos can and do play an essential role in Government. Nevertheless, “public bodies should only exist when there is a pressing need, must be accountable to Parliament and be efficient and effective”.
Those are words that all of government should live by.