Quangos

6.27.00pm GMT Thu 4th Feb 2010

A whole bunch of politicians will be voted out of office soon but the quangocrats will carry on regardless.

The Local Government Association estimates that there are 790 quangos spending £43billion and employing 92,500 staff.

Some of them are no doubt doing useful work, but none of them are democratically accountable in the way ministers or local councils are.

The LGA is asking if it's right that so much money should be spent at one remove from democratic control and whether such spending delivers value for money. Do the quangos operate with the kind of openness and transparency that taxpayers get from democratically accountable organisations like councils? And is it helpful for the public who need to use public services that there are so many different, sometimes overlapping, bodies?