The quango state is still getting fatter

Last year we published The Machinery of Government (And How To Reform It), a special report by William Norton.  William used his experience as a business consultant and frontbench policy adviser to present the first holistic analysis of the various arms of the UK Government, and outlined a plan to rescue the public services.

Today Conservative Home releases the sequel to that report: “What Tony Did Next”.  Or rather, what Tony didn’t do next, because the dead hand of bureaucracy continues to strangle our public services.

There are now over two million people employed by government departments, quangos and other bodies.  This does not include any nurses, doctors, teachers, beat policemen or serving members of the armed forces.

This represents an increase in one year of 78,000 employees, a one-year increase in staffing greater than the Government’s entire promised reduction in civil service numbers under the Gershon Review.

The biggest Whitehall employer remains Health (1,013,356 staff), followed by Trade & Industry (253,369 staff) and Work & Pensions (131,404 staff).  The Treasury has leapt into fourth place (112,489 staff), overtaking the MOD and the Home Office.  Is tax collection now considered more important than defending the realm or fighting crime?

The most quango-ridden government department is the Home Office (749 governance bodies) followed by Health (717) and Constitutional Affairs (272).

The British Government is still overstaffed.  There is now an average of 800 staff for each governance body, an increase from the previous year’s average of 758 staff.  Whitehall is not slimming-down and it is not becoming more efficient.  There has actually been a slight reduction in the number of quangos over the year (35 fewer) but there are still over 2,500 governance bodies in the UK/England, a massive increase since 1997, when the equivalent count (allowing for devolution) was around 1,900 quangos.

Whatever might be wrong with the public sector in Britain, it is not being caused by a shortage of administrators.

Examples of bureaucratic incompetence during the year:

1. Whilst NHS Trusts have been suffering from financial deficits and overspending, the average number of non-medical employees for each NHS quango has increased (from 1,519 to 1,597).
2. The abolition of the Strategic Rail Authority was announced in 2004, yet it is still in existence and has, in fact, increased its staffing.
3. The Royal Mint has the responsibility for coining money, yet somehow manages to make a financial loss of £1.6m.  The Master of the Mint is Gordon Brown MP.
4. The Assets Recovery Agency is responsible for tracking down the proceeds of crime, yet it is technically insolvent – and was guilty of spending taxpayers’ money without Parliamentary approval.
5. There are still two quangos devoted to abolishing the pound and joining the euro.
6. Bungled introduction of new IT systems in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, the Department for Work & Pensions, and the Department of Health.
7. The Rural Payments Agency proved incapable of paying the “simplified” Single Farm Payment to farmers on time or correctly. 
8. The Ministry of Defence may have lost up to £15.6m through book-keeping errors.
9. The Department for Education & Skills had to destroy publications worth £1.8m, and was subject to a VAT investigation by Customs & Excise on its hiring of consultants.
10. The Foreign Office wasted £0.6m of taxpayers’ money by failing to monitor the use of ten satellite phones which were stolen in Iraq.

DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE FULL REPORT HERE

Comments

[TomTom]

Is tax collection is now considered more important than defending the realm or fighting crime?

Yes...and by every Government since James Callaghan's

[Umbrella Man]

Thank you William. Another great piece of work from you.

[Matt Wright]

Good article. The answer though is not to just cut things but look fundamentally at how we enable the things we want to see in society. Much of the appartus of Govt is command and control orientated. Over time the social responsibility agenda could use mechanisms to create the right enviornment for people to want to have healthier, safer communities. I think this should include fiscal mechanisms that reward those who contribute to the quality of communities.

Matt

[Steve]

anyone know where i can get up to date figures on the electoral/register? Is it true it has showna massive increase recently??

[William Norton]

Steve: you might be able to track down what you want via www.statistics.gov.uk

[TomTom]

British Army strength 167.000 (1975)
107.000 (1996)
96.000 (2006)

[George Hinton]

So much for the Gershon Review and NuLab's committment to it.
Indeed, with these figures NuLab's committment to the elimination or reduction of red tape is just so much clap trap and empty posturing for headlines.
One trusts that DC will make capital of these figures. The future pension liabilites of these pen pushers is going to be humungous and a massive drain on financial resources, where will the money come, the taxpayers.

[Andrew]

Nice piece. This is exactly what you get when the head of government is uninterested in detail, and prefers vague sweeping ideals rather than the hard work of making the machine run efficiently - you can see why Bush and Blair get on so well, they're the same mould of politician......

[Speed Limit]

The empty half of the glass is always at the top.

Speed Limit
http://speedlimit.home.att.net

[Ian]

I'm assuming that doesn't include the near million extra jobs created in local government?

[Martin Bristow]

What on earth is Matt Wright talking about?This sort of speak is endemic within the Cameroons.There is no committment to tangible action,no actual policy just a form of totally meaningless words.What does Matt mean by "creating mechanisms"

For me we can spell out a Tory agenda in simple straightforward language.We should:

Reduce State Spending as a proportion of GDP by totally reforming the public services.This should be done by looking at broader options of social insurance within the health service and the introduction of more market driven educational options for parents.Power needs to move towards those who run hospitals and schools and away from the state.

A total reform of local government should be pursued.The quality and accountability of those delivering local services must be driven up.Only this week we have seem some of the outrageous salaries paid within the local government sector ,and for what value exactly?

It is a duty to ensure value.Only by reducing the size and scope of the state and freeing the voluntary and charitable sectors will we return to a true tory vision. A axe should be taken to the quabnos which now proliferate bringing an end to the notion that power should reside with so called experts.Conservatives should trust people more.Let us al have the oppourtunity to excersise our own judgement.Let the state step back.

[William Norton]

Ian: correct, local government is excluded from this survey, although it does include "near to government" bodies which the Cabinet Office claim are nothing to do with them but which in practice are now subsidiary branches of central govmt carrying on their policies and under their control. There's more detail on that point in the wider report and the original document from last year.

[William Norton]

Matt Wright/Martin Bristow: I didn't read Matt's comment as "totally meaningless Cameroonism", but actually as making the perfectly fair comment that it's no good simply moaning about the problem, we need a plan for reform. Which is actually the same point Martin is making, although in somewhat different language. Politics, how confusing, eh? So tricky to work out where to point the rifle before shooting.

Neither of you need worry, however, since I have looked at this issue already. The Editor has only supplied the 2006 appendix listing the detailed findings of which quango has gained how many staff over the year, so you don't have any discussion on this point in the document linked here. But if you go to the original report from September last year you will find -
in possibly more detail than you ever really wanted to know - how to go about it. "Mechanisms" included for no extra charge.