Wednesday Volume 511 9 June 2010 No. 12 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Wednesday 9 June 2010 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2010 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through the Office of Public Sector Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/ Enquiries to the Office of Public Sector Information, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 313 9 JUNE 2010 314 business organisations, to work out with them in respect House of Commons of each RDA the best way forward. I suspect that he and I have the same sort of concerns about the way in Wednesday 9 June 2010 which SEEDA has operated. The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock Chris Skidmore: While the excellent Frenchay hospital near my constituency was downgraded by the previous Government despite a 50,000-strong petition of local PRAYERS residents opposing the move, it was reported last year that the salaries of NHS quango bosses have increased [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] by up to 77% in the past three years. Does the Minister agree that this Government’s commitment to transparency and accountability will help to reduce that sort of cost to the taxpayer and will help to protect NHS front-line Oral Answers to Questions services? Mr Maude: First, I congratulate my hon. Friend on CABINET OFFICE the very vigorous campaign that he has fought and continues to fight in the interests of his constituents to The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked— protect the work of the Frenchay hospital. I have visited the hospital and I know what good work it does. He is Non-departmental Public Bodies absolutely right that transparency is the friend of the citizen in exposing what the state spends its money on. 1 Simon Kirby (Brighton, Kemptown) (Con): What It will enable communities, individuals and organisations mechanism he plans to use to review the effectiveness to exercise and enforce much greater accountability. of non-departmental public bodies. [1341] Money is going to be increasingly scarce in the years ahead, thanks to what we inherited from the Labour 4. Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) (Con): What party, and it is going to be increasingly important that it mechanisms he plans to use to review the effectiveness is spent where it is needed, at the front line, on patients of non-departmental public bodies. [1344] and on parents whose children are at school. 9. Andrew Stephenson (Pendle) (Con): What mechanisms he plans to use to review the effectiveness Andrew Stephenson: I thank my right hon. Friend for of non-departmental public bodies. [1349] those reassurances. Will he tell us what we are going to do to stop the proliferation of more and more quangos, 10. Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con): What as happened under the previous Government? mechanisms he plans to use to review the effectiveness of non-departmental public bodies. [1350] Mr Maude: In addition to applying rigorously to existing public bodies and quangos the three tests that The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster we have set out, we will ensure that public bodies do not General (Mr Francis Maude): We are committed to come into existence unless they are absolutely necessary cutting the number of public bodies to increase to meet one of those three tests. Bodies that spend accountability and cut costs. In future, each public body public money and deliberate on policy should in general will have to meet one of three tests—does it perform a be accountable, through Ministers, to Parliament. That technical function, does it need to be politically impartial is a basic principle, and that is what we will enforce in or does it act independently to establish facts? The future. Prime Minister has written to Cabinet colleagues asking them to apply those tests rigorously to the public bodies within their area of responsibility. I will be meeting Mr Amess: As someone who has long been concerned colleagues in the coming weeks to take the review about unelected, unaccountable quangos, would my forward, and I expect to publish the outcome in the right hon. Friend care to comment on mechanisms that autumn with a view to introducing a public bodies Bill deal specifically with quangos in Essex? Would he welcome later this year. representations from me and other Essex colleagues? Simon Kirby: I thank my right hon. Friend for his Mr Maude: I would indeed. I expect those representations answer, and I welcome him to the Dispatch Box. Given to be vigorous and forthright and I look forward to the Government’s clear policy on localism, will he ensure receiving them. that the regional development agency quango, SEEDA—the South East England Development Agency—is rapidly dismantled and that its powers and decisions are handed Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab): Many public bodies, back to the local authorities to which those powers have such as the RDAs the Minister mentioned, but also the always properly belonged? Bank of England, the BBC, the Judicial Appointments Commission and parliamentary boundary commissions, Mr Maude: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his are independent of Government precisely because they kind remarks. It is very good to see him here. He is a have to be independent of Government. Will the Minister close neighbour in Sussex and he makes a very good give the House a commitment that this will not just be a point. The Government will engage in discussions with centralising exercise whereby bodies that ought to be local partners, including local authorities and local independent are taken under direct control by Ministers? 315 Oral Answers9 JUNE 2010 Oral Answers 316 Mr Maude: I am disinclined to take lectures about Kelvin Hopkins: I thank the Minister for his answer. centralising tendencies from someone who was a Minister The British constitution has sometimes been characterised in the last Government. I simply refer the hon. Gentleman as a time-limited elective dictatorship and the Prime to what I said. The tests that we will apply to quangos—to Minister as an elected monarch. In an era of sofa public bodies—will be rigorous and serious. If there is government, the Cabinet was downgraded to cipher an overwhelming requirement for them to be independent status. Is it not time for really radical change—perhaps politically, that will be one of the tests, but the presumption with the Cabinet elected by Members of Parliament? will be that public functions should be exercised by organisations accountable to Parliament. Mr Letwin: The trend towards elections is indeed one that the Government have in general sponsored, as the hon. Gentleman is well aware. Many Members have put Meg Munn (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab/Co-op): May I themselves forward and are in the course of being welcome the right hon. Gentleman to his post? He may elected for many important posts in the House. But the be aware that I chair the Westminster Foundation for reality of Cabinet government does not depend on Democracy, a non-departmental public body that has elections, it depends on whether the Prime Minister of enjoyed cross-party support for its whole existence. Can the day and, indeed, in the coalition Government, the he clarify the processes that are taking place? The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the day Westminster Foundation for Democracy is already under are willing to see collegiate decision making rather than a process of review as one of the arm’s length bodies elective dictatorship. They are not only in this instance independent from the Foreign Office. How does that willing, but keen to do so. If I may point it out to the mix with the process he has set out today? hon. Gentleman, one of the advantages of the new politics of coalition Government is that it enforces on Mr Maude: I hope they will seamlessly meld together. us collective decision making, because we have to agree I am not conscious of the particular review to which the between the two parties in the coalition as well. hon. Lady refers, but this review will cover all public bodies that come under the responsibility of all Mr Speaker: Order. I do not wish to be unkind to new Departments. I am confident that in my discussions Ministers, but answers are, frankly, too long. They need about the review with the Foreign Secretary the Westminster to get shorter. Foundation will be considered in a proper way. Voluntary Organisations Mr Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab): I welcome 3. Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con): What assessment the Minister to his responsibilities. If he has a bonfire of he has made of the effects on voluntary organisations the quangos, there are one or two I might add. There is of the Government’s regulatory and administrative one where newly appointed staff are increasing, its requirements. [1343] executives earn more than Ministers and MPs, and are The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Nick appointing press officers and consultants, yet they do Hurd): One of our priorities is to make it easier to run a not even answer the telephone. Would the Minister be voluntary organisation, so we are committed to clearing surprised and would he care to name that quango? the thicket of bureaucracy that too often gets in the way Might it be the Independent Parliamentary Standards of doing good and to setting up a joint task force with Authority? the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to look at how we can reduce red tape for small organisations.