The Quango State: A Growing Crisis in Welsh Governance
The Prydain Centre today releases a hard-hitting new report, The Quango State We’re In, exposing the unchecked growth of unelected public bodies in Wales and their corrosive effect on democratic accountability, efficiency, and public service delivery.
Despite long-standing promises to reduce the influence of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (quangos), Wales now operates a bloated network of 255 public bodies, including an astonishing 175 advisory groups—an average of 12.5 per minister and three per Senedd member. These bodies are often redundant, duplicative, and unaccountable, draining taxpayer resources while complicating decision-making.
The report identifies severe structural failings in key areas:
- Health & Education Bureaucracy Overload: 29 health-related quangos and 17 education bodies have created a decision-making logjam, with layers of advisory groups adding bureaucracy instead of streamlining services.
- Politicisation & Accountability Failures: Scandals such as the Public Services Ombudsman’s bias controversy, financial mismanagement at Natural Resources Wales, and the collapse of National Theatre Wales due to Arts Council of Wales misgovernance illustrate the deep-seated issues with unchecked quango power.
- Excessive Costs & Overlaps: Taxpayers fund £10.5 million annually for “equality, inclusion, and human rights” initiatives, often duplicating UK-wide efforts. Meanwhile, quango executives enjoy eye-watering salaries exceeding even that of the UK Prime Minister, with some earning over £200,000 per year.
A Bold Plan for Reform
The Prydain Centre is calling for a complete overhaul of the quango state, proposing a set of decisive reforms to restore accountability, reduce waste, and refocus government on real service delivery:
🔹 Immediate Quango Sector Review – Conduct a root-and-branch assessment to eliminate bodies that fail a public interest test. Any quango that cannot demonstrate clear, necessary, and efficient service delivery should be scrapped.
🔹 A New Welsh Agency for Value & Efficiency – A powerful watchdog, led by an independent “ap Musk” figure from Wales’ private sector, will audit and streamline the quango landscape, absorbing Audit Wales and enforcing strict financial oversight.
🔹 End the Advisory Body Dependence – Reduce the 175 advisory bodies to only those with essential technical or scientific expertise. Ministers must take responsibility rather than outsourcing decision-making.
🔹 Merge & Abolish Redundant Bodies – Slash unnecessary bureaucracy by de-clustering health and education quangos, integrating equalities functions into UK-wide agencies, and eliminating politically motivated activist quangos.
🔹 Reform Public Appointments – Ensure a transparent, merit-based selection process that bans the appointment of former politicians, party staffers, and political operatives to quango leadership roles.
🔹 Cut Bloated Salaries & Stop Quango PR Spending – No unelected official should earn more than an elected representative. Restrict quango spending on advertising, lobbying, and public relations.
🔹 Devolve Cardiff Airport & Public Assets to the Private Sector – Sell off Cardiff International Airport and transfer the Global Centre for Rail Excellence to commercial management to remove unnecessary public subsidy.
🔹 End the Push for Constitutional Expansionism – Disband quangos pushing for radical constitutional change, such as the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales, which seeks to engineer political separation from the UK without public mandate.
🔹 A Referendum on Senedd Reform – Before expanding the Senedd at a significant public cost, Welsh voters must be given the final say through a democratic vote.
“For too long, unelected bodies have dictated Welsh policy behind closed doors,” said Matt Smith, author of the paper. “This report lays out a clear, bold plan to put power back where it belongs—with the public and their elected representatives, not an army of unaccountable bureaucrats.“