Latest news with #Quangos
The Independent
06-04-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Quangos could be forced to close or merge under Whitehall review
Quangos could be forced to close, merge, or have their functions taken back by Whitehall departments under a new Government review. Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden has written to departments telling them that every arm's-length body will be examined, and could be shut down if its existence cannot be justified. It comes after Sir Keir Starmer announced that NHS England would be abolished, as ministers look to free up more money for frontline services. The review will look at four areas across each organisation, including whether policy areas are of national importance and should therefore be looked after by ministers, and looking to improve efficiency by reducing duplication of work. It will also take into consideration whether there is a clear need for regulation or advice independent of ministers. Bodies which are just advisory will not be considered justified. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Mr McFadden said: 'We are taking action to ensure decisions of national importance that affect everyone in this country are made by those who have been elected to do so. 'Only by fundamentally re-wiring the state, can we deliver our Plan for Change – kick-starting economic growth, rebuilding the NHS and strengthening our borders.' Announcing the closure of NHS England last month, the Prime Minister said that he could not 'honesty explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy'. Sir Keir said that duplication was one of the reasons the body would be closed, telling a patient at his speech that 'we are duplicating things that could be done once. 'If we strip that out, which is what we are doing today, that then allows us to free up that money to put it where it needs to be, which is the frontline.'
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Quangos could be forced to close or merge under Whitehall review
Quangos could be forced to close, merge, or have their functions taken back by Whitehall departments under a new Government review. Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden has written to departments telling them that every arm's-length body will be examined, and could be shut down if its existence cannot be justified. It comes after Sir Keir Starmer announced that NHS England would be abolished, as ministers look to free up more money for frontline services. The review will look at four areas across each organisation, including whether policy areas are of national importance and should therefore be looked after by ministers, and looking to improve efficiency by reducing duplication of work. It will also take into consideration whether there is a clear need for regulation or advice independent of ministers. Bodies which are just advisory will not be considered justified. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Mr McFadden said: 'We are taking action to ensure decisions of national importance that affect everyone in this country are made by those who have been elected to do so. 'Only by fundamentally re-wiring the state, can we deliver our Plan for Change – kick-starting economic growth, rebuilding the NHS and strengthening our borders.' Announcing the closure of NHS England last month, the Prime Minister said that he could not 'honesty explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy'. Sir Keir said that duplication was one of the reasons the body would be closed, telling a patient at his speech that 'we are duplicating things that could be done once. 'If we strip that out, which is what we are doing today, that then allows us to free up that money to put it where it needs to be, which is the frontline.'
Telegraph
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Sir Keir slays NHS England, the King of Quangos
Another week and another escape into the lives of real people by the Prime Minister. Westminster's zoo keepers are really due a performance review. This time Oinky had not gone to market but to Hull, there to accuse the public sector of being 'over-cautious', 'weak' and 'intrusive'. Physician, heal thyself! Today the PM was introduced by a woman with an unplaceable transatlantic accent who spoke almost entirely in managerial platitudes and acronyms. People were there, she said, 'to power the self-care movement within our company'. Quite how being dragged out of your coffee break to watch a man who'd been poured into a blue shirt to talk about civil service reform is meant to boost 'self-care' is anybody's guess. It was more like they'd been dragged in to witness an act of self-abuse. Sir Keir thanked the LinkedIn-personified woman and did his standard shirt sleeves-up, random hand-gestures opening. 'This must be an incredibly exciting place to work!' he said. Well it was, until about two minutes ago. After a long preamble about waiting lists and Ukraine, he finally got to the meat of the policy. His aim for the British state was something called 'maximum power'. He made this sound like a particularly advanced form of dishwasher tablet technology. You could see the people in the row behind him thinking: 'Cor, him off the Cillit Bang adverts has aged a bit!' Clearly, unlike so many of these set-piece moments, it appeared that Sir Keir might actually be about to unveil something of genuine import. You could tell an announcement was imminent because the PM suddenly began inserting all sorts of caveats. 'Of course,' he said, 'I'm not questioning the dedication or the effort of individual civil servants.' (Thus spake a man who had never been on hold to the DVLA.) We can take comfort in the fact that when a politician says they're not doing something you can be pretty certain that that is precisely what they are doing. Finally we got to the big moment. NHS England was to be scrapped, the King of all Quangos slain in one fell swoop. Goodness knows I find the Prime Minister's tone and manner deeply irritating. A sort of auricular scabies. And I think most of his policies – from his malevolent hatred of farmers to the Great Chagos Robbery – are borderline suicidal for the nation. However, if we can finally ignite the bonfire of the quangos, about which the Tories talked and talked but never acted for 14 years, then he will have done Britain a serious favour. Perhaps while we're on a roll, the PM may even find time to take his Muskian chainsaw to the £9.5 billion energy quango run by Ed Miliband, the Office for Value for Money, and others among the 27 arm's-length bodies set up by... one Keir Rodney Starmer since last July. Still – there is more joy in heaven over a sinner that repenteth. Whether there'll be joy in Whitehall is another matter entirely.
