Liberal Democrats Unveil Plan To Scrap Inspection Agencies Saving £400m A Year

12.00.00am GMT Fri 25th Feb 2005

The Liberal Democrats have announced plans to streamline Whitehall by abolishing seven inspection agencies and transferring their tasks to a strengthened Audit Commission. The plans would improve the independence of inspections and provide substantial savings for the taxpayer of up to £400m a year.

The seven inspection agencies are the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), The Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI), the Healthcare Commission, the Social Services Inspectorate, Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate (HMFSI) and the Housing Corporation.

Under the present system, the agencies are funded by Government Departments, raising serious questions about their independence - whereas the Audit Commission gets its funding principally from fees.

The Liberal Democrat plan would also reduce duplication - for example, the chief executive of a council will not have to answer the same questions to a plethora of different inspectors.

Inspections at present are not sufficiently focused - effort needs to be directed to those institutions that need it the most. A local authority, school or hospital that is consistently high performing does not need the same attention as those that are struggling.

Edward Davey MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow to the ODPM, said:

"We need a properly independent, streamlined and focused approach to inspections. The present system is unwieldly, expensive, duplicates effort and gives too much influence to government departments. We need to get central government off the backs of local government - to get Whitehall out of the town hall. Our plans would save the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds. It's high time to cut back on red tape and make sure inspections take place where they are really needed."