Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Selous Excerpts

Wednesday 5th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)]

4. What recent progress his Department has made on its programme to abolish and reform non-departmental public bodies.

[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.

[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?