Public Bodies Bill

This blog first wrote about this awful Bill back on 31 October when I wrote as follows:

Quango bonfire: In order to carry out some of its plans for the Forestry Commission, but also for a host of other 'Arms Length Bodies', government has announced the legislative route for changing the structure and role of a large number of agencies.  Legislation will start in the House of Lords where it is likely that the new measures will get a rough ride and careful scrutiny.  Their Lord- (and Lady-) ships are likely to want to examine closely a piece of legislation that has such far-reaching impacts.  The Public Bodies Bill is a classic enabling bill framed along the lines of 'We're going to change lots of things, some of which we know now, some of which we'll work out soon and some of which we can't tell you anything about because we haven't thought of them at all yet, but please give us the power to do all this' which may not go down too well in the Upper House.

That looks pretty accurate still. 

The Public Bodies Bill is the enabling Godfather of the Cameron reform programme. Already under fire from a Commons Select Committee and enduring a bumpy ride in the Lords, it is seen by many as anti-democratic. Indeed, in its current form it could make it possible for any “anti-green” government to ride roughshod over existing environmental safeguards.

On forestry, Caroline Spelman at Defra has been at pains to point out that reform is needed to ensure that our trees and woodlands are properly protected. As it stands, the Public Bodies Bill could signal the end of independent state conservation bodies capable of holding government to account.

The Schedules which accompany the Bill are as long as the Bill itself. And, of course, this Bill is about changes to all aspects of Public Life, not just the natural environment. 

In Schedule 1 (bodies to be abolished) you will find all the Regional Development Agencies, the Football Licensing Authority (I have no idea), the Library Advisory Council as well as the Commission for Rural Communities.

Schedule 2 lists some mergers.

Schedule 3 lists bodies whose constitutional arrangements will be modified and includes National Park authorities, Internal Drainage Boards as well as The English Tourism Board and the Hallmarking Council.

Schedule 4 has a few bodies, including Natural England, whose funding arrangements will be modified.

Schedule 5 lists bodies from whom some functions will be transferred and includes the Environment Agency and National Park authorities as well as the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and  the Horserace Betting Levy Board.

Schedule 6 (are you still with me?) has only National Park authorities and the Broads Authority in it where power may be delegated.

And then we come to Schedule 7.  Schedule 7 is now being referred to sarcastically as the 'Pending tray' and includes bodies which are subject to add to other schedules - for example Schedule 1.  Surely Schedule 7 is just a few odds and sods?  Go have a look.  Schedule 7 contains well over 100 bodies where this government doesn't yet know, or won't yet say, what it wants to do but wants the power to do it.  Schedule 7 does include Natural England, the Environment Agency, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, National Park authorities, the Broads Authority and the Forestry Commissioners but also the Health and Safety Executive, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the Parole Board, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Office of Fair Trading.  All human life is here.

The Bill provides for public functions to be transferred to others: just about anyone - charities, private companies, community groups, with the minimum of safeguards. There is a clear risk that functions that should be delivered in the general public interest will in future be delivered through those with a much narrower interest. To take an extreme example: there is nothing we can see in the Bill that would stop the Environment Agency's pollution control function being delivered by the Confederation of British Industries or Friends of the Earth! And many of the balancing duties that apply to public bodies to conserve biodiversity and so on, would not apply once the function had been transferred out of the public sector.

So this is a Bill which is short on saying what it will do and long on grabbing the power to do something unspecified later - perhaps by another government in the distant future. 

The RSPB has been briefing Peers about the implications of this Bill and we will continue to track its progress and seek to have it altered through its Parliamentary passage.