Comment: Quangos must be accountable

Jul 10 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

REGIONAL quangos or non-elected bodies are shadowy organisations which nevertheless are responsible for spending hundreds of millions pounds a year.

Few people know who they are, or what they do. That is why it is welcome news that the heads of powerful quangos are to be grilled by MPs from across the North-West on a regular basis, after a report warned of a dangerous “accountability gap”.

Such a development is long overdue, as it is a full year since Gordon Brown promised regional select committees and “regions question time” to give the likes of Merseyside a stronger voice.

And it will come as news to many that we have a “Minister for the North-West” in the form of Beverley Hughes MP, so invisible has she been.

Most concern centres on the lack of scrutiny of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) – including the Northwest Development Agency – which have growing powers over economic development, housing, planning and the environment.

But the idea is that other organisations, including Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the Highways Agency, plus arts and sports councils, would also be investigated.

Most select committee meetings would be held in the relevant region, rather than at Westminster, to allow members of the public to attend.

The report means the new set-up will finally get under way in the autumn – albeit on a trial basis – provided it is approved by the whole Commons.

The long-awaited study by the Commons modernisation committee also recommends that MPs should quiz the “regional ministers” on their activities, in Parliament, to make them properly accountable.

If it is to be more than yet another public relations exercise, a regional select committee for the North-West will need to have some real teeth to ensure agencies can finally be held to account and subjected to proper scrutiny.