According to leaked documents seen by Welsh Icons the Government is proposing that English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund may be given the rights to take over Wales.
The Cabinet Office has ordered a leak inquiry and says it regrets any “uncertainty” for the Welsh.
The list of public bodies up for abolition, merger or other reforms was included in a letter from Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude to other ministers, dated 26 August, which was leaked to the BBC’s Politics Show and it is believed that the Daily Telegraph has also seen a copy.
The table shown above clearly shows that under the proposals the Department for Culture, Media and the Sports (DCMS) is considering merging Wales with English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund (subject to business case)
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) told us: “thousands of jobs – and vital services – could be at risk.”
Dan Lewis, of new think tank the Economic Policy Centre, said half of the quangos listed for abolition were just advisory bodies which “cost virtually nothing” to run: “What they are, are seven or eight people who meet in Whitehall five or six times a year and they pay the chairman £200 or £300 a time.”
But pressure group the Taxpayers’ Alliance said there were “still lots more quangos that can be added to this growing bonfire”.
