Defra belt tightening leaves 30 quangos axed
Updated on 22 July 2010
More than 30 environmental and agricultural organisations are to be abolished and the sustainable development commission will losing state funding, the government announces.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said today she was shutting down around one-third of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) arm's length bodies as part of its contribution to cutting the deficit.
But she insisted the move did not mean the government was abandoning its "green" ambitions. Many of the bodies facing the axe had been set up at a time when understanding of and engagement with environmental issues was less mainstream, and their work is now part of what the Government does as a matter of course, she said.
Due to close are the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, the Agricultural Wages Board, the 15 Agricultural Wages Committees, the 16 Agricultural Dwelling House Advisory Committees, the Committee on Agricultural Valuation, the Inland Waterways Advisory Council and the Commons Commissioners.
The Sustainable Development Commission, which advises the Prime Minister and First Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, receives around two-thirds of its £3m annual budget from Defra.
It was also announced today that eight regional government offices mare to be abolished.
Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles announced his intention in principle to shut down the eight offices for the South-West, South-East, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, North-West, Yorkshire & the Humber and North-East. The axe is not expected to finally fall until the end of the government's spending review this autumn.
Earlier this week the government announced a number of business quangos, which cost over £8.6m, would also be axed.
The Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property policy (SABIP), SITPRO (Simplifying International Trade) and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Advisory Body (WAB) will all close in the next year. The British Shipbuilders Corporation will be abolished next year.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said the work of the quangos would be taken over by government departments, making them more accountable and reducing administrative costs.
