Quangos and the Structure of the Public Sector in Scotland

Abstract

The concept of the 'quango' is one of the most confusing and unhelpful in public policy studies, but for Scotland it is a vital link between the pre- and post-devolutionary systems. In the absence of a devolved legislature, appointed public bodies were a way of suggesting that policies were determined and implemented in a 'home-grown' way. Under the Scottish Parliament, their existence raises questions about the place of formal ministerial and parliamentary mechanisms in securing accountability for devolved functions. The scale of the quango apparatus responsible to the Scottish Executive is well known. Statutory bodies set for devolution were listed in annex A of the White Paper Scotland's Parliament. The latest inventory, in Public Bodies 1998 (Cabinet Office 1998) lists three nationalised industries, three public corporations, 36 executive and 30 advisory bodies, three tribunals, 68 NHS bodies, and a penumbra of 'local public spending bodies' - 37 post-school educational institutions, 22 local enterprise companies and 259 housing associations spending public money from a legal status outside the public sector. The quango universe encompasses a range of organisations that may or may not be well run and deliver services effectively. In itself, institutional status is no guarantee of success nor predictor of failure. What is significant is the load on government of monitoring these bodies, and the convenient but slightly illicit political distancing afforded to officials and politicians by their detachment from the conventional democratic accountability of central or local government. As Greer and Hoggctt state in a recent study of some of these bodies in England