ROSS CLARK: How quangocracy rakes in the cash  (2025)

Is there anything more dishonest than repeated government promises to pare back the quangos?

Two months ago, this doomed process began yet again when Keir Starmer announced he, too, would cut out pointless bureaucracy.

'For too long, the previous government hid behind regulators, deferring decisions and allowing regulations to bloat and block meaningful growth in this country,' he said.

Yet the Labour Government has already created 27 new quangos in eight months, including the Fair Work Agency and the Independent Football Regulator – without which the sport had long managed to operate quite happily.

Not that the Conservatives can talk. Remember David Cameron's great 'bonfire of the quangos'?

While it's true his coalition government culled 285 public bodies, it also created 184 new quangos, many disguised as companies in which the government was the sole shareholder.

Between 2018 and 2023 the May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak governments went on to create 17 more quangos, from the Regulatory Horizons Council to Active Travel England.

Coined in a 1982 book by Anthony Barker called the Quangos In Britain, the acronym stands for a 'quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation' – an arm's length organisation to which governments have increasingly delegated power.

At the time, there were officially 2,171 of these, many of which Margaret Thatcher promised to cut.

Yet by 1994, a group called Democratic Audit claimed there were 5,521 bodies that could fairly be called 'quangos'. Which is great news for the quangocrats.

According to an analysis by the Taxpayers' Alliance of the annual reports for 398 quangos for the year 2022/23, some 285 quangocrats sat on the boards of more than one body.

Five sat on four different boards, one on six and one sat on an astonishing nine boards, earning a total of £145,000 for his troubles.

So, who are the men and women on Britain's quango gravy train and how much are they raking in for what, in many cases, seems a remarkably light workload?

On the gravy train

Since last year, unelected Peter Hendy, 72, has been rail minister in Sir Keir's government, a position he is able to fill thanks to a life peerage.

He doesn't report to MPs in the House of Commons but he is at least a bit more accountable than he was in his previous job as Chairman of Network Rail. There he had the distinction – if it can be called that – of being the highest-paid non-executive member of any quango, receiving £316,000 a year.

Not only did he have no responsibility to report to the Commons, he had no shareholders to report to, either, because Network Rail is a wholly government-owned company.

Maybe if the trains ran on time and services were not constantly disrupted by strikes, over-running engineering works and staff shortages, it wouldn't matter so much. But anguished passengers have every right to feel short-changed.

The City fat cat

In a scathing report last autumn, Richard Lloyd, of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services, branded Britain's financial regulator 'incompetent' for its failure to protect people against scams.

According to UK Finance, the trade body for banks, consumers lost £1.17billion to fraud in 2023.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has also been accused of having terrible staff relations. One worker spoke of being 'criticised, bullied and sidelined' after challenging the regulator's performance.

None of this, however, has prevented the FCA's top brass from doing very nicely.

Now Senior Independent Director and Deputy Chairman of the FCA, Mr Lloyd has also acted as interim chairman in which capacity he earned £136,000.

At the same time he held the position of Chairman of Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority – being paid as much as £60,000 last year.

Woman who sat on FOUR boards

Catharine Seddon's background is as a BBC documentary-maker. But that hasn't stopped her sitting on multiple quangos covering subjects for which she does not have any obvious qualification.

In 2022/23, she was on four boards. She was a non-executive director of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for which she was paid £22,500, a senior independent director of the Gambling Commission (£12,500), a lay member of the Legal Service Bill (another £12,500) and a board member of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (£7,500).

Retaining roles with two of these organisations, her expertise seems to have widened further – she now sits on the disciplinary committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Chairman of the jet set

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier enjoyed a distinguished career in the Royal Air Force, which he ended up leading between 2016 and 2019.

He won't be lacking a good pension, but he is doing pretty well in retirement by building a portfolio of quango positions.

He is paid £130,000 as chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority and £17,500 as non-executive director at the UK Atomic Energy Authority. He is also chairman of the RAF Museum, for which his remuneration is unknown.

Missed many meetings

A polite way to describe Martin Spencer would be to call him a prolific figure in the quango world.

Others might prefer to see him as feasting on public money, spreading himself too thinly in the process.

In 2022/23 Spencer set what must surely be a record by sitting on no fewer than nine quangos.

He served as a commissioner for the Civil Service Commission, for which he received £70,000 a year.

On top of that were posts as a non-government, non-executive director of the Submarine Delivery Authority (£17,500); a non-executive board member for Companies House (£12,500); the interim Chair of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (£12,500); a member of the Legal Ombudsman (£12,500); and a non-executive director of the NHS Counter-Fraud Authority.

Spencer also had roles with Ofsted, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and the Criminal Cases Review Commission. This all adds up to a handsome annual income from the taxpayer of £145,000.

Given his testing schedule, he missed many meetings of the various bodies on which he served. In the year 2022/23 he made it to only one out of four meetings of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, three out of eight of the NHS Counter-Fraud Authority and just three out of six meetings of Ofsted.

String of directorships

Not far behind Spencer on the quango gravy train is Emir Feisal, a chartered accountant who in 2022/23 managed to hold down a very impressive six positions, the second-most of any individual.

As a member of the British Transport Police Authority he pocketed £17,500 a year, alongside lucrative yet not obviously onerous roles as a non-executive director of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Authority (which earned him £17,500) and as a commissioner for the Judicial Appointments Commission (for which he was paid £13,000).

He also found time to serve as a non-executive board member of Companies House (£12,500), a non-executive director of the Pensions Ombudsman (£7,500) and a non-executive director of the Serious Fraud Office (£2,500).

He was eligible to attend 32 meetings at four of the organisations, and made it to 23.

He has since given up half of the six positions, and supplemented his income with new board roles with the Disclosure and Barring Service and Planning Inspectorate.

Paid advisor

Another quangocrat with four jobs, Deep Sagar has served as a non-executive director of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (£7,500), a non-executive board member (commercial) for the Legal Aid Agency (£8,000), an independent advisory member of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (£6,000), and a board member for the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (£7,500). He no longer performs the last role.

Multiple roles

Mother-of-three Caroline Corby has a background working in the City in private equity, after which she devoted her time to penning historical and children's books.

But she has since reinvented herself as a quangocrat, with multiple fingers in the public sector pie.

In 2022/23 she combined being chair of the Parole Board (£37,500) with chair of the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (£35,000) as well as being a non-executive director of the Security Industry Authority (£2,500), roles she continues to hold.

Rich rail rewards

Cementing the rail industry's role as the biggest gravy train of all, Mark Bayley receives £66,000 as a non-executive director of Network Rail, which is responsible for the upkeep and development of railway infrastructure.

In 2022/23 as he was also a non-executive director of the much criticised Water Services Regulation Authority (or Ofwat, annual salary £17,500) and of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (£17,500), which he has since given up.