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Tories pledge to cut back quangos Tories pledge to cut back quangos
(about 1 hour later)
David Cameron is pledging to cut the number of unelected quangos to save money and increase accountability.David Cameron is pledging to cut the number of unelected quangos to save money and increase accountability.
A Tory government would close one schools quango, while another - media regulator Ofcom - would be stripped of its policy-making role, he will say.A Tory government would close one schools quango, while another - media regulator Ofcom - would be stripped of its policy-making role, he will say.
The Tory leader will ask shadow cabinet ministers to identify which bodies within their areas should be cut back.The Tory leader will ask shadow cabinet ministers to identify which bodies within their areas should be cut back.
This weekend the government announced a review of public bodies in a bid to ensure cash goes to frontline services.This weekend the government announced a review of public bodies in a bid to ensure cash goes to frontline services.
'Vast amounts' Mr Cameron told the BBC he was not planning a "bonfire of the quangos" - echoing previous promises by the former Tory deputy PM Michael Heseltine and by Gordon Brown when he was in opposition.
He told the BBC Breakfast programme: "There are some quangos that have a technical function - inspecting nuclear installations. Or they have a transparency function - like the Office for National Statistics. 'Technical functions'
In his speech he will say that the media regulator Ofcom would lose its policy making functions and the schools' Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) which develops the national curriculum would be closed.
But another quango, Ofqual, the exams regulator, would be retained.
Mr Cameron told the BBC Breakfast programme: "There are some quangos that have a technical function - inspecting nuclear installations. Or they have a transparency function - like the Office for National Statistics.
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"But in too many cases these organisations have got bigger and bigger. They spend about £64bn a year, they start having their own communications departments, their own press officers; they start making policy rather than just delivering policy - and their bosses are paid vast amounts of money.""But in too many cases these organisations have got bigger and bigger. They spend about £64bn a year, they start having their own communications departments, their own press officers; they start making policy rather than just delivering policy - and their bosses are paid vast amounts of money."
"There's a lot of money to be saved but, more to the point, we need to make these more democratically accountable so people don't feel the rage and anger against the machine they have no control over." He said too many quangos had become "lobbying organisations" and there was a duplication where they were making policy, while government departments were doing the same thing.
Mr Cameron will call for a cut in the 790 quangos - or quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations - which cost £35bn a year, in a speech to the Reform think tank. Many had been "empire building" he said and 68 quango heads were now paid more than the prime minister.
'Buck passing' Pay levels
He will say: "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. Mr Cameron will call for a cut in the 790 quangos - which stands for quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations - which cost £35bn a year, in a speech to the Reform think tank.
"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." Ahead of it he told the BBC: "Many of them will be slimmed down radically, pay levels will be completely different and some of them will be abolished."
He will say under a Conservative government any delegation of power by a minister to a quango would not mean a "corresponding delegation of responsibility". He will say it is not just about saving money but making quangos more "democratically accountable".
"Even when power is delegated to a quango the minister remains responsible for the outcome. They set the rules under which the quango operates," he will add. "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."
Under Tory plans, Ofcom would stick to its technical and enforcement functions - and the schools' Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency would be closed. Under a Conservative government even when power was delegated to a quango the minister would remain responsible for the outcome, he said.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne revealed the government would review quangos to try to "make sure every penny of public money goes to frontline services". Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne said the government would review quangos to try to "make sure every penny of public money goes to frontline services".
Mr Byrne said the Conservative proposals included the creation of at least another 17 quangos. Pay freeze
The claim was rejected by the Tories, who said the number of bodies had risen dramatically since Labour came to power in 1997. Mr Byrne said the Conservative proposals included the creation of at least another 17 quangos, a claim rejected by the Tories.
On Sunday Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred said public sector pay should be frozen, or at least subject to "severe" restraint, to help tackle the economic crisis.
Asked if he agreed, Mr Cameron said there were independent pay review bodies which set salaries which had to take into account private sector pay because they were looking at how to recruit and retain public sector staff.
He said it was "right" to leave it to the pay review bodies rather than announce a pay freeze.
"Everybody knows public sector pay is going to have a much tighter than it has in the past. Here we are in 2009, we don't know exactly what inflation will be in the future so I don't think it's the right time to make this decision."
Chancellor Alistair Darling has said public sector pay had to be "fair" to both public and private sector employees.