Government must stop ‘outsourcing’ decisions to regulators, PM tells Cabinet

Sir Keir Starmer has told his ministers they must take more responsibility for decisions and stop “outsourcing” them to regulators.

The Prime Minister told a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday he wanted to reverse what he described as a “trend” under the previous government of decisions being made by other bodies.

His remarks come ahead of a planned “intervention” on Thursday in which Sir Keir is expected to announce plans to overhaul how the British state works, and appeared to suggest some regulators could see their powers moved “in-house”.

Ministers will also be required to assess whether regulations contribute to the Government’s “plan for change”, raising the possibility that rules that play no part in Labour’s agenda could be abandoned.

But asked whether the Government was planning a “bonfire of the quangos”, Downing Street would not be drawn on which specific regulators or decisions could be affected.

Renewal

Discussing Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “(Sir Keir) said that to deliver security and renewal we must go further and faster to reform the state, to deliver a strong, agile and active state that delivers for working people.

“This includes Cabinet assessing processes and regulations that play no part in delivering the plan for change and the Government taking responsibility for decisions rather than outsourcing them to regulators and bodies, as had become the trend under the previous government.”

Senior ministers have expressed frustration with regulators in recent months, with the Chancellor suggesting towards the end of last year that post-financial crisis regulation had gone “too far” and urging regulators to focus more on securing economic growth.

Report

Meanwhile, the Justice Secretary has become embroiled in a row with the Sentencing Council over guidance asking judges to consider ethnicity when deciding whether to ask the Probation Service for a pre-sentence report on an offender.

Shabana Mahmood has asked the Sentencing Council to reconsider its guidance, while ministers have insisted it is for them and Parliament to determine policy.

Questions about the role of regulators come amid a wider push from the Government to reform how Whitehall functions.

On Monday, Sir Keir and cabinet secretary Sir Chris Wormald wrote to all civil servants calling for a “rewiring of the British state”.

Their message included plans to make the Civil Service smaller, while the proportion of civil servants in digital or data roles will double by 2030.