Taking The Quangos Out

[plummet expert]

With the news that some 177 Quangos are for the chop, some are named in the Telegraph article but most are not. Has anyone out there got inside knowledge of a Quango which ought to go?

I have one. It is The Legal Services Commission. This organisation replaced the Legal Aid Board some years ago and is responsible for dealing with payment of legal aid money. I have known several people who have worked in this wasteful organisation and they have nothing but criticism of its jobsworth ways. They have spent huge time and effort imposing a contract regime on the high St solicitors (who against media belief make little from helping masses of people on low or no incomes). This pointless administrative layer has caused huge costs to solicitors operating legal aid work through a maze of silly rules and paperwork- so much so that they regularly give it up or even go bust. It's all done in the name of improving 'Quality'.

The real story is that it has made absolutely no difference to quality at the point of service to customers. Neither would it or can it as it is an administrative quality that is imposed, applicable only to civil servant life and not a small business with one to 15 people.

I could easily sort out a legal aid scheme within one year, remove the admin, free the police and crime/familycourts from this nonsense. It would save hundreds of millions of your £. Please let Mr Clarke, Osbourne and Cameron know.

Any other Quangos that require the chop?

[Si1]

With the news that some 177 Quangos are for the chop, some are named in the Telegraph article but most are not. Has anyone out there got inside knowledge of a Quango which ought to go?

I have one. It is The Legal Services Commission. This organisation replaced the Legal Aid Board some years ago and is responsible for dealing with payment of legal aid money. I have known several people who have worked in this wasteful organisation and they have nothing but criticism of its jobsworth ways. They have spent huge time and effort imposing a contract regime on the high St solicitors (who against media belief make little from helping masses of people on low or no incomes). This pointless administrative layer has caused huge costs to solicitors operating legal aid work through a maze of silly rules and paperwork- so much so that they regularly give it up or even go bust. It's all done in the name of improving 'Quality'.

The real story is that it has made absolutely no difference to quality at the point of service to customers. Neither would it or can it as it is an administrative quality that is imposed, applicable only to civil servant life and not a small business with one to 15 people.

I could easily sort out a legal aid scheme within one year, remove the admin, free the police and crime/familycourts from this nonsense. It would save hundreds of millions of your £. Please let Mr Clarke, Osbourne and Cameron know.

Any other Quangos that require the chop?

honestly - suggest you look up the government's website on money saving, and post this there, also find out which minister is doing all this (is it Danny Alexander and George Osborne?) and forward this to their office, and also send a copy to the editor at the Daily Telegraph

[The Masked Tulip]

They regenerate. You would need the combined might of Captain Janeway and SG-1 to take out the QUANGOs.

[plummet expert]

They regenerate. You would need the combined might of Captain Janeway and SG-1 to take out the QUANGOs.

It just requires people in Govt who can act without being deflected by all the screaming. Just look at the Chief Constables of police you have heard on the news warning about this or that consequence of cuts. The fact is the police have been saddled with a great deal of pointless admin. They have hired far too many people over many years to deal with it. There is no need to fire any active police officer. Just take an axe to the paperwork systems and cutdown office staff and office space. Stop asking them to fill in hundreds of forms all day.

[The Masked Tulip]

It just requires people in Govt who can act without being deflected by all the screaming. Just look at the Chief Constables of police you have heard on the news warning about this or that consequence of cuts. The fact is the police have been saddled with a great deal of pointless admin. They have hired far too many people over many years to deal with it. There is no need to fire any active police officer. Just take an axe to the paperwork systems and cutdown office staff and office space. Stop asking them to fill in hundreds of forms all day.

Rather than hearing about QUANGOs going - which is needed - I would rather hear about red tape going.

An A&E doc was on Radio Wales this luncthime talking about all the rules and regs he has to go through just to do simple tests on someone when they come into A&E. It sounded like that somewhere there were entire departments designed to make things more complicated.

[The Masked Tulip]

How many people in society benefit directly & indirectly from the quango?

I am very worried about British Waterways going - rivers might suddenly stop flowing or, worse, they will flow too much.

What about all those Kingfishers ready to dive in slow motion so they can be filmed at the side of riverbanks?

[plummet expert]

I am very worried about British Waterways going - rivers might suddenly stop flowing or, worse, they will flow too much.

What about all those Kingfishers ready to dive in slow motion so they can be filmed at the side of riverbanks?

Ha Ha!

You are right - it is the red tape which is the problem. For some of them , that is 90% of their function. The cost of it is quite absurd. The core functions of a quango (if needed atall) can be assumed by other govt depts or outsourced by tendering and monitored by a govt dept.

Whenever I hear that cuts will hurt front line services, I call out, 'get rid of the red tape you fools'. Govt needs to get agrip this time and ban organisations form axing the frontline and force them to cut anything else first.

[hilltop]

Rather than hearing about QUANGOs going - which is needed - I would rather hear about red tape going.

An A&E doc was on Radio Wales this luncthime talking about all the rules and regs he has to go through just to do simple tests on someone when they come into A&E. It sounded like that somewhere there were entire departments designed to make things more complicated.

I blame the lawyers for the redtape. Procedures in the police and in hospitals are often put in place with an eye on the Courts.

If the police do not follow procedure, do everything they should and record that they have, prosecutions can fail.

Equally, hospital procedures are designed as much to protect from compensation claims as to help the patient.

Of course, if you are on the receiving end in either context, you too will want procedures followed rather than made up as they go along.

Which all means that 'cuts' can have unintended consequences.