Monday May 19

Quangos: The Unseen Government of the UK

Download the full report (PDF)

Ben Farrugia, policy analyst at the TPA, talked to Friction TV about the report:

Blogs

5.55pm, Better Government
Matthew Sinclair:
Call Ofsted! Fix Education!

The Government have failed to improve the education system via the unimaginative means of large dollops of taxpayer cash. We documented the extent of their failure in the report (PDF, Chapter 1) we launched before this year's budget.  That is bad news for taxpayers, whose money has been wasted, and bad news for the children who will not get the education they deserve.

However, there is one silver lining.  The quality of the debate over where our education system needs to go next has definitely improved... - Read More

12.15pm, Economics 101
Matthew Sinclair:
Conservatives to lower overall burden of tax?

David Cameron's pledge that the Conservatives will prioritise cutting the tax burden, in a speech this morning, is great news... - Read More

11.30am, Burning Our Money
Mike Denham:
Service Cuts

For example, according to the Amateur Swimming Association, back in the 1980's we had 3000 school pools; today, there are only 2000.

Now, we are not saying taxpayers funds should be spent on providing these highly expensive facilities. But against the background of a 50% real-terms increase in taxation... - Read More

Media Coverage

- Waste mounts as £100 billion web of quangos duplicates work

"Ben Farrugia, the report’s author, said the growth of quangos had led to waste, duplication and conflicting agendas. He said: “Ministers are concealing a huge section of government from those who pay for it." - Full Article

- Leader: Conservatives must push beyond Crewe and Nantwich by-election

"Waste is endemic in the public sector - as we can see from the list of 1,162 public bodies published by the Taxpayers' Alliance. Last year, these organisations cost us £64 billion, some of which, surely, offers scope for spending cuts." - Full Article

- £100bn a year spent on quangos

"Ben Farrugia, who led the research, said: "The relentless increase in funding for these bodies in the past 10 years is shocking. It appears that every aspect of British life is touched by Government now.

"Government is now so large, diverse and complex that it is impossible for anyone to manage effectively, let alone ministers with no prior experience of management and little in-depth understanding of the work carried out by their departments." - Full Article

- Cameron pledges to ease family tax burden by cutting Labour's 'reckless spending'

"The TaxPayers' Alliance said there were 1,163 quangos costing the taxpayer a total of £64billion a year - equivalent to £2,550 per household.

The cost has risen by 50 per cent over the last decade. Quangos now employ almost 700,000 bureaucrats." - Full Article

- Fury at £100bn bill for quangos

"Policy analyst Ben Farrugia said: “Government in the UK is now so large, diverse and complex it is impossible for anyone to manage effectively, let alone ministers." - Full Article