Spending on quangos up £10bn in two years

Home » Finance » Spending on quangos up…

Spending on quangos up £10bn in two years

5/02/10 9:43 am By Richard Heap

Public spending on quangos has gone up £10bn in the last two years, the Cabinet Office has revealed.

Last night, the Cabinet Office published its report Public Bodies 2009 that shows annual spending went up from £37bn to £46.5bn between 2007 and 2009. The number of quango employees also went up from 95,000 to 110,000 over that period even though the number of bodies fell from 827 to 766.

This could go down further if the government chooses to axe bodies such as regional development agencies in a bid to help repair the public finances. The public sector deficit is forecast to reach £178bn in 2009/10, according to government figures.

On 7 December 2009, the government announced its plans to slash 123 quangos in its efficiency plan Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government. The report also shows that men dominate jobs on public sector boards, with less than one third (32.6%) of these roles held by women. Among the findings in the report are:

£4.7bn of public money was spent in 2009 funding 18 non-departmental public bodies reporting to government department Communities and Local Government. These included the Homes and Communities Agency, Thames Gateway development corporations and the Valuation Tribunals.
£2.4bn of public money was spent in 2009 funding 31 non-departmental public bodies reporting to the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. These included nine regional development agencies and the Competition Commission.
£1.7bn of public money was spent in 2009 funding 68 non-departmental public bodies reporting to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. These included the Environment Agency, Sustainable Development Commission and the Commission for Rural Communities.

To read the full report click here: Cabinet Office report – Public Bodies 2009