Oral Question·Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
“If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.”
Tabled: 30 August 2022Answered: 6 September 2022
Asked by
Chris Bryant
Labour — Rhondda and Ogmore
Answering Minister
the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Answer from Hansard
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mark Ferguson)
The Government have reviewed all 306 active arm’s length bodies, and we have commitments to reform over a third of them, but we will go further. Devolution by default means that we will transfer functions of arm’s length bodies to local leaders or return them to Departments, because all critical decisions should be taken by Ministers who are directly accountable to Parliament and the public.