Firestarter Francis Maude needs to keep fanning the quango bonfire

The Prime Minister once promised a ‘bonfire of the quangos’. Although his government has sometimes failed to fulfil expectations, his firestarter in the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, has managed to make a dent in the 1,000+ organisations that flourished under Labour.

The latest figures released by the Cabinet Office today claim that £1.4bn has saved through the government’s quango reform programme. So far, 106 public bodies have closed, with a further 150 merged down into 70. Among the more quirky ex-quangos are the Government Hospitality Advisory Committee on the Purchase of Wines, Advisory Committee on National Historic Ships and Advisory Committee on Packaging. In an article for ConservativeHome, Maude outlines his clear test for burning a quango:

I’ve introduced three simple tests that each and every quango must pass to survive. One: does it perform a necessary technical role? Two: does it need to be politically impartial? Three: does it need to act independently to establish facts? If it doesn’t meet these tests we will either scrap it or bring its functions into government.