Nolan in call to curb pay for quangos

CHRIS BLACKHURST

Westminster Correspondent

People who sit on housing associations, Training and Enterprise Councils, university and grant-maintained schools' governing bodies should not be paid, according to a recommendation expected shortly from the Nolan committee on standards in public life.

In a report due to be published next month, the committee is likely to advocate an end to payment for holders of posts on those bodies. In practice, since most people who sit on such organisations are unpaid, the recommendation is unlikely to have instant impact but will be seen as laying down important ground rules for the future.

A spokesman for the committee said last night that Lord Nolan and his committee had heard "a lot of evidence that office holders of such bodies should not be paid". He stressed, though, that their findings did not extend to all quangos, and was dismissive of some reports which suggested they did - claiming "two and two have been put together to make 66".

The spokesman added: "Is the Nolan committee going to recommend payment for people on TECs, grant-maintained schools , universities further education bodies and housing associations? The answer is no."

This will be the second report from the Nolan inquiry and while it is not as significant as the first, which looked at MPs' outside interests, it will suggest a framework for the growing tier of unelected government.

The committee has restricted itself to a limited field, butonce the report is complete it will move on to areas, which are expected to include the House of Lords and the influence of freemasonry in public life.

The committee's inquiry has lasted several months and has involved hearings in Scotland. Apart from payments, its remit is to cover appointments and outside interests of members on those public bodies, but not all quangos.