Red tape Coalition: 984 inquiries, reviews and consultations costing millions and ordered at a rate of more than one a day since Cameron and Clegg came to power

Millions of pounds is being wasted on government reviews and consultations, MPs said yesterday.
The Coalition has opened 984 inquiries – more than one for each day it has been in power – into issues as diverse as ice-cream van chimes and the electronic monitoring of pigs.
Other reviews include whether street sweepers should require qualifications and whether mothers should be able to use vouchers to buy frozen vegetables.

MPs have said millions of pounds is being wasted after an investigation found the Coalition opened 984 inquiries since coming into power

Richard Bacon, a Tory member of the Commons public accounts committee, yesterday called on the National Audit Office to investigate, perhaps not seeing the irony of his request.
‘The huge scale of these reviews raises questions, and I wouldn’t discourage the NAO from looking at this area,’ he said. ‘On this scale they must have serious financial implications, with hundreds of civil servants being diverted to work on them.
‘These reviews could lead to delay and sclerosis inside departments, because civil servants will be hanging around waiting, rather than taking action.

 

‘I would be very interested in knowing from the NAO how much this all costs and how effective and economic it is.’
Critics say the figures show David Cameron has broken a pledge to slash the number of pointless reviews. Late last year the Prime Minister vowed to ‘cut through the dither’, adding: ‘If there is no need for a consultation, don’t have one.’
Yet a year after saying in 2011: ‘It is hard to believe we need government regulations on issues such as ice-cream van jingles’, his government set up a consultation on the very same issue.

The Coalition has opened more than one inquiry for each day it has been in power, while George Osborne's Treasury alone has set up 84 reviews

An inquiry was opened into how long ice-cream van chimes should ring for and where they should be able to ring, but there has been no response from the Government in six months

An investigation by The Times found that many of the 984 reviews have not yet been acted upon.
The survey of the 15 largest Whitehall departments showed that almost a third of the consultations set up since 2010 had still not received an official response.
Bernard Jenkin, Tory chairman of the public administration committee, called on parliamentary select committees to ask individual departments for explanations.
‘It is staggering that the Government should spend so much time and money and produce so few outcomes,’ he said. ‘This gives the term “kicked into the long grass” a new reality.

The government has also looked into whether pig farmers should inform councils about the movements of their animals by letter or e-mail

‘The Prime Minister complains rightly about dithering and inaction but Whitehall seems to be institutionally predisposed to dithering and inaction by review and consultation. This could be costing tens of millions of pounds.’
The 17,000-word review into ice cream van chimes, sent to 23 organisations, asked the public how long chimes should ring for, where they should ring and until what time.
One question asked whether chimes should be played after 8pm because children’s bedtimes are getting later.
Twelve months on, ministers have still not come to a decision on the less-than-pressing issue. A consultation by the Department for Transport was prompted by a one-man campaign to save a railway committee that decides which artefacts should be saved for the nation.
Labour peer Lord Faulkner of Worcester made a plea in the House of Lords that the eight-man Railway Heritage Committee, which costs £100,000 a year, be saved from the bonfire of the quangos.
A consultation was launched and all 32 respondents supported the plan to move the committee’s role to the Science Museum.
Another consultation into Cornish wine received no responses at all.
Andrew Haldenby, director of the Reform think-tank, said: ‘David Cameron promised a post-bureaucratic age but his record in government is very different.’
George Osborne’s Treasury has set up 84 reviews, Vince Cable’s Department for Business 61, the Department for Work and Pensions has set up 73 and the Department of Health 80.