The CIPD has called for a single Workplace Commission to streamline the numerous employment and skills quangos that currently exist.
Both Labour and the Conservatives have announced plans to review the number and scope of quangos in a bid to save billions of pounds of public money. The government admits there are 790 quangos, costing at least £34bn a year.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said a review of the “byzantine system” of the various jobs quangos was long-overdue and there was a strong case for limiting their remits and streamlining their functions.
John Philpott, CIPD public policy director, said: “It is far from clear how much value for money the existing jobs-related quangos provide to the taxpayer. One possibility… is to streamline several of the existing bodies into a single Workplace Commission with the simple remit of spreading best practice on how to boost productivity across both the private and public sectors.”
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Philpott added that the area of workplace skills was a good example of potential duplication, with eight quangos now responsible for taking on activities from the Learning and Skills Council when it is abolished in 2010.
The CIPD declined to name which quangos it would scrap to form a new commission, but called for a “root and branch” assessment of how they currently operate.
