Mystery continues to surround the future of the Waste & Resources Action Programme after its name was noticeably absent from a leaked government list of quangos which are set to be saved or abolished.
The list, prepared by the Cabinet Office and published by The Daily Telegraph today (September 24), shows that 177 taxpayer funded bodies are in line to be to be abolished in a bid to cut costs, while 94, including the Environment Agency, are still under review.
Meanwhile, four look set to be privatised and 129 merged. A further 350 bodies are set to be saved.
The biggest cuts concern the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is the department responsible for waste and recycling in the UK. It has more than 50 bodies which look set to be abolished.
However, the absence in any of the columns of the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which receives the lion's share of its funding (£58.7m) from Defra, raises questions over what plans the government has in store.
WRAP is tasked with driving resource efficiency across the UK and has been instrumental in increasing recycling rates, awarding grants to recycling companies and carrying out research into waste-related issues. However, it has also been accused in the past of liberal expenditure.
The organisation is structured as a limited company and as a result details of its finances and board meetings remain obscure.
It has already had several high-level meetings with Defra , with more planned over the next few weeks. Earlier this month, an MP grilled ministers over how it would be funded in future, calling for Defra to make it easier for public funding to be replaced with private investment (see letsrecycle.com story)
A WRAP spokeswoman told letsrecycle.com today: “Government is carrying out a review of all arms length bodies and is due to make announcements in the next few weeks. WRAP can't react to a leaked list in today's papers.”
WRAP has said its absence from the list was due to it being an independent organisation with an independent board which appoints its own chair and chief executive, whereas the list is made of non-departmental public bodies.
ACP
Elsewhere, the Advisory Committee on Packaging was listed as one of the organisations to be scrapped. This is the same fate in store for the Audit Commission (see letsrecycle.com story) and the WEEE Advisory Body (see letsrecycle.com story).
The committee advises Defra on the development of the packaging regulations and includes representatives from all areas of the packaging supply chain.
The committee has been influential in helping achieve low-cost compliance for businesses in the UK but is understood to have lost some impetus since the departure of former chairman John Turner in December 2009. It is expected that its functions will now be absorbed into Defra as is the case for the WEEE Advisory Body and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – with stakeholders still consulted with.
The move is unlikely to save much money, however, with current chair Bob Lisney paid £350 a day and all other board members unpaid.
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency's position as ‘under review' has meant that major structural changes are already in hand, with proposals to merge two regions (see letsrecycle.com story). It has been mooted that the organisation could be merged with Natural England, but it is unclear whether this will be taken forward.
However, as the environmental regulator, it is thought unlikely that the body will be scrapped as it has important functions to carry out.
Cabinet Office
Responding to the Daily Telegraph report, a Cabinet Office spokesman said that the department would not comment on the specifics of the leaked list.
However, he stressed that the government was committed to radically increasing accountability and improving efficiency.
He said: “As part of this, work is already underway to make substantial reforms to its public bodies. This work is on-going and an announcement will be made in due course.
“We deeply regret any extra uncertainty for employees that this irresponsible leak has caused”.
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