Quango cull confirmed by Cabinet Office 1

Finance | Tania Mason | 14 Oct 2010

Capacitybuilders, the Commission for the Compact and the Office for Civil Society Advisory Body will all be scrapped, the government confirmed today.

The abolition of the three organisations was widely expected after the list of quangoes to be abolished was leaked to the Daily Telegraph last month, but the Cabinet Office had refused to confirm the accuracy of the list until today.

The functions of the Commission for the Compact – to promote and champion the Compact – will transfer to the Cabinet Office and Compact Voice respectively. This too was anticipated after the two organisations launched a draft renewed Compact a few weeks ago which, as reported by Civil Society yesterday, was roundly criticised by the Commission.

With regards to Capacitybuilders, the government states that alternative delivery for capacity-building activity is under review – civil society minister Nick Hurd has already announced that he will launch a consultation soon on the future shape of sector infrastructure. Capacitybuilders will have disbursed around £150m of government funding to the sector during its existence.

The OCS Advisory Body – effectively the group of senior sector figures appointed to advise the old Office of the Third Sector on what the sector wanted from the government – will cease to exist when its members’ terms of office come to an end on 31 March next year.

The Charity Commission will remain; its survival was never in doubt, though it is expecting savage budget cuts as part of next Wednesday’s spending review. Other bodies relevant to the sector that will continue to exist include the Churches Conservation Trust, Arts Council England, Historic Royal Palaces, Museums and Galleries, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.

Among those that are being retained despite being warned they were at risk of abolition are English Heritage, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The government decided to retain these because they perform “a technical function that should remain independent from government”.

A number of other quangoes will be reconstituted as independent charities. Among these are NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the Design Council, and British Waterways - this will become “similar to a National Trust for the waterways”.

The School Food Trust will no longer be a non-departmental public body but will continue as a charity with the potential to become a Community Interest Company.

The Theatres Trust will continue as a charity, as previously announced.

In other developments, the Consumer Direct helpline will be taken over by Citizens Advice; the Community Development Foundation which already has charitable status will be “supported to move to a social enterprise model”; and Sport England will merge with UK Sport.

The Youth Justice Board will be scrapped.

And the Equality and Human Rights Commission will be retained but “substantially reformed”, with “better focus on its core regulatory functions and improved use of taxpayers’ money”.

The government claimed that the restructuring of the quango landscape would “help to reinvigorate the public’s trust in democracy and also ensure that the government operates in a more efficient and businesslike way”.

Directory: Capacitybuilders | Charity Commission | Citizens Advice | Commission for the Compact

Place a comment

Stolen
14 Oct 2010

Back to square one for the Compact.

Compact and charity question ... what of the independence of Citizens Advice?

Don't build capacity on shifting sands.

No need to wait on abolishing the Office of Civil Society Advisory Body. That was Compact Voice function anyway.

[Reply]

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.