Public Bodies

(asked on 19th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent progress his Department has made on implementing the public bodies reform programme 2020 to 2025; and if he will make an estimate of the impact of that reform programme on costs to the public purse (i) so far and (ii) in each of the next three financial years.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 12th January 2024

To date the Public Bodies Reform Programme 2020 to 2025 and wider Public Bodies Team has provided value for money for the taxpayer through:

  • conducting a prototype of corporate service benchmarking across 90 arm’s length bodies (ALBs), uncovering spend discrepancies and identifying scope for savings if ALB spending is brought in-line with the median spend;

  • the Public Bodies Review Programme, which commits departments to review 125 ALBs, covering 90% of ALB expenditure. Departments are expected to identify 5% operating expenditure savings in each full-scale review. So far, 60% of the 125 planned reviews have been initiated and £35 million in efficiency savings identified;

  • tightening approval processes for new ALBs, diverting almost 70% of proposed ALBs to less expensive delivery options;

  • publishing codes of practice for ALBs to improve financial oversight and risk management between department and ALBs; and

  • introducing quarterly non-executive (NED) board member inductions.

The Public Bodies Reform Programme runs until 31 March 2025. The Government will take a decision about the priorities for future public bodies reform in due course.

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