Cameron pledges to cut quangos

Tory leader David Cameron today pledged a Conservative government would cut the number of quangos - starting with communications regulator Ofcom.

Mr Cameron said others - such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical excellence (NICE) - would be improved, ministers would take back responsibility for policy issues and top salaries paid to the so-called quangocracy would be published.

In a speech in London to the Reform think-tank, Mr Cameron promised: "With a Conservative Government, Ofcom as we know it will cease to exist.

"Its remit will be restricted to its narrow technical and enforcement roles. It will no longer play a role in making policy.

"And the policy-making functions it has today will be transferred back fully to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport."

He went on: "To enable NICE to recommend good drugs that it currently rejects, we will introduce payment-by-results for drug companies.

"Decisions should be based on what actually gets people better and we should pay the drugs companies according to their value to patients.

"NICE should be involved in this process, working with Government and drug companies not just to set fair prices for new medicines but also new pricing structures."

The Tory leader said there could be more than 1,000 quangos operating in Britain today.

He said: "This growth in the number of quangos, and in the scope of their influence, raises important questions for our democracy and politics.

"Questions of accountability - now vital in the light of the damaged trust in our political system, questions about public spending control - now vital in the light of the debt crisis; and questions relating to the effectiveness of politics in addressing the key social problems that give people such great concern.

"Too many state actions, services and decisions are carried out by people who cannot be voted out by the public, by organisations that feel no pressure to answer for what happens - in a way that is completely unaccountable.

"The growth of the quango state is, I believe, one of the main reasons people feel that nothing ever changes; nothing will ever get done and that the state just passes the buck and sends them from pillar to post instead of sorting out problems."

Mr Cameron continued: "We must reduce the number of quangos in this country. But we must do so in a way that is responsible and which recognises that there are circumstances in which quangos have a useful and important part to play in democratic politics.

"Right now, my shadow cabinet is reviewing every independent public body that exists in their department. They are looking to see if they perform a technical, fairness or transparency function.

"At its heart is a massive shift in power from bureaucracy to democracy, unaccountability to accountability, elites to people from quangos to you."

Reform director Andrew Haldenby said: "Quangos are the worst kind of government, existing in a 'twilight zone', untouchable by electors or the market. They provide cover for unpopular decisions.

They provide a quick way to circumvent existing government structures that aren't working.
"Politicians have to be brave and jettison the quango comfort blanket."

Councillor Margaret Eaton, chairman of the Local Government Association, (LGA) which represents more than 350 councils in England, said: "It is time for a radical overhaul of the quango state that gives taxpayers more direct influence through the ballot box over how their money is spent by government at all levels.

"People have the right to see where their money is being spent and they are losing confidence in the way the political world can be removed from them and their everyday lives.

"The LGA will be taking a close look at how quangos work, whether they provide people with value for money and whether they are genuinely open and transparent.

"I am confident that some quangos will pass with flying colours, whilst others may have some work to do to come up to scratch."

She said the LGA had launched a campaign calling for a radical overhaul of the "unelected quango state" to ensure that taxpayers get value for money and can see where their taxes are being spent.