Home / The English constitution / Quangos
Key concept
The arm's-length bodies that carry out public work outside direct ministerial control, and a recurring target of the argument on this site.
Quango stands for quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation. In official language these are arm's-length bodies or non-departmental public bodies. They are funded by government and carry out public functions, but they sit at a remove from ministers, with their own boards and their own decisions.
They regulate, advise, fund and deliver. They range from the very large and powerful to the obscure. Familiar examples include Ofcom, the Environment Agency and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, alongside the independent committees that set interest rates and other technical decisions once made by ministers.
The worry is accountability. When an unelected body makes a decision voters dislike, there is often no one to vote out. The number of bodies has grown, and counts vary: official lists run to several hundred, while the TaxPayers' Alliance has put the wider total far higher. The figures, with their disputes, are on the evidence page. On the Starkey account the quango state is a large part of the move from elected politics to unelected power.
Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation. In official use they are called arm's-length bodies or non-departmental public bodies.
No. They are appointed and funded by government but run at arm's length from ministers, which is why critics raise concerns about accountability.
Counts are contested. Official lists run to several hundred non-departmental public bodies, and wider counts are higher. The figures are set out on the evidence page.
