§ Mr. McMasterTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what plans he has to improve the accountability to Parliament of quangos and executive agencies.
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§ Mr. WaldegraveNon-departmental public bodies, formerly called quangos, are fully accountable for the use of public funds. All executive NDPBs publish an annual report and accounts which enable Parliament, the taxpayer and customers to judge whether that NDPB is securing value for money. The National Audit Office, which reports to Parliament, is either the auditor of, or has inspection rights to, all executive NDPBs. The Public Accounts Committee scrutinises the activities of NDPBs closely and may summon the chief executive to give evidence, if necessary.
The Government are committed to applying citizens charter principles to NDPBs and to encouraging executive NDPBs to prepare management statements, as a means of clarifying respective roles and responsibilities. The Government also want to see increasing emphasis placed on the use of performance targets covering financial performance, quality of service and efficiency; and publication of how those targets have been met.
Executive agencies are units within Government which were set up as a result of the "next steps" initiative. All staff in executive agencies are civil servants, or military personnel in defence agencies. They are accountable to Ministers, and through them to Parliament, in the same way as all other civil servants in Departments.
The "next steps" initiative has increased the accountability of whole areas of civil service work, through greater openness and clearer lines of responsibility. The Minister responsible sets each agency a number of annual targets covering efficiency, effectiveness and service to customers. Its performance is monitored by Ministers, and full details are reported to Parliament and published in its annual report and accounts. Agency chief executives may be called before the PAC and other Select Committees to account for the discharge of their responsibilities. However, the main line of accountability remains to the Minister, who is in turn accountable to Parliament.