Gordon Brown keeps quango details secret

Labour loves its quangos, but it would rather you didn't ask how much.

The UK's 827 non departmental public bodies -- from the UK Film Council to the Wine Standards Board to the Darwin Advisory Committee -- cost the taxpayer more than £31 billion last year, employing 95,000 people.

Until 2006, we were able to see how much each one cost, how many staff they employed and the name and salary of the person in charge.

No longer. In the past few days, the Cabinet Office has published the latest guide to these bodies (the 2007 edition covering April 2006 to March 2007, so the data is almost a year old and refers to the Blair era).

Whereas last year's ran to 372 pages (they have all been over 200 since 1997), this one is just 27. Detailed information about each body has been replaced by charts of cost, gender and ethnic balance by sponsoring department.

For example, whereas previously this report would say the Higher Education Funding Council cost a massive £6 billion in 2005-06, was run by Steve Egan who earned £120,000 and employed 240 staff, now we are told only that the Department for Education and Skills (as it was in March 2007) has 18 bodies costing £18 billion. And that's it.

And this from a Prime Minister who promised a more transparent style of government

Update: A reader draws our attention to the words of Gordon Brown, as Shadow Chancellor, in 1995: "The biggest question … is why our constitution is over-centralised, over-secretive and over-bureaucratic and why there is not more openness and accountability. The real alternative is a bonfire of the quangos and greater democracy."

Comments

[Koby]

Oh, well, if this government of Gordon Brown can be in power with no election and support of the public, why is that anyone is surprised he is also hiding the Truth from the public?

NO TRUST IN THE GOVERNMENT!

We can say as much as we want to those banana republics in Africa and S. America that they are wrong, but the real banana republic is HERE to stay..

long live Mugabe, ups sorry, Brown!!