Business News

November 2010

Expert Help on Offer in Quango Shake-up

Milsted Langdon is offering expert help to assist public bodies affected by a major government shake-up.

A Cabinet Office announcement on 14 October revealed that 192 quangos (quasi-autonomous non-government organisations) will cease to be public bodies and their functions will be brought back into government, devolved to local government, moved out of government or abolished altogether.

The government also plans to merge 118 bodies down to 57 and to retain and substantially reform a further 171. A total of 380 organisations will be retained.

Milsted Langdon is well placed to work with public sector organisations, with previous change management assignments including assisting Somerset Training and Enterprise Council in the lead-up to its liquidation, acting as liquidator and advising on its absorption into the now-defunct Learning and Skills Council.

Roger Isaacs of Milsted Langdon: “Winding down a public sector organisation is a complex and challenging process for those involved internally, so working with professionals able to sensitively and objectively advise on what’s involved and provide expert support during the process is vital.”

Business-linked quangos affected by the shake-up include:

• Competition Commission: government will consult in the new year on a merger with the competition functions of the Office of Fair Trading
• Construction Industry Training Board: consideration to be completed by November 2010 of transferring the board and its functions to private sector status
• Copyright Tribunal: subject to final agreement, jurisdiction of the tribunal is to be transferred into the Ministry of Justice tribunal service
• Regional Development Agencies: as previously announced, the eight agencies will be abolished and the functions to be retained transferred to central and local government and others
• UK Commission for Employment and Skills: a review is to be completed by the end of the year of the commission’s core functions and the most appropriate structure to deliver a simplified skills landscape.

LINKS: Milsted Langdon public sector wind-down services; Cabinet Office announcement

For more information, please contact Roger Isaacs on risaacs@milsted-langdon.co.uk.