YES, but what exactly does the British Potato Council do? Or, for that matter, the Milk Development Council?
Quangos, regulators and watchdogs are living in interesting times, with many facing the chop, others having to make cost savings and a fair few embroiled in bitter rows.
BBC News Online (Feb 11) reports on the nine “most useless quangos” as named by the Efficiency in Government Unit, which is funded by two right-of-centre think-tanks and presumably not useless at all. The unit says that the UK’s 529 quangos suck up billions of taxpayers’ cash and many of them are utterly worthless.
But while the British Potato Council claims to do vital work promoting spuds, another publicly funded body, the Audit Commission, has confessed that some of its functions are slightly less essential.
It has decided that not all of its watchdogging represents value for money and, as a result, says Public Finance (Feb 11), will cut £18 million from inspection bills charged to public bodies, partly by allowing some of them to enjoy inspection holidays. Housing Today (Feb 11) suggests there may well be room for cost-cutting. One inspection of a housing organisation took four inspectors nine days to complete.
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Other watchdogs face enforced cuts. The Times (Feb 11) says that 150 rail passenger campaigners will lose their jobs in a flurry of government axe-wielding meant to make line closures easier. Ministers say that the cuts will make the Rail Passengers Council “more efficient and more effective”.
The General Medical Council (GMC), meanwhile, is engaged in its own spat with the Government over Department of Health comments about the performance of the doctors’ regulatory body in the wake of the Shipman inquiry. But the GMC’s leader says that it’s all about “pre-election spin” designed to deflect attention from the inquiry’s recommendations that relate directly to the department itself.
Another body criticised for its performance is the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA), whose workings were condemned by MPs.
But Professional Fundraising (Feb) says that the MPs may have been misled when they were told that a PFRA code of conduct on expenses paid to fundraisers fell short of good practice guidance from the Home Office. It seems the “guidance” was not official and was merely part of a quote given to the BBC. “It is in no way meant as guidance for the sector,” the Home Office says.