Axe for HIV quangos?
posted: 04/10/2010
Two expert HIV advisory bodies - quangos - could be abolished under government plans to save money. Both the 'Expert Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS' and the 'Independent Advisory Group of Sexual Health and HIV' are on a leaked list of quangos that are to be scrapped, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. Two other quangos performing useful work for people with HIV could also be abolished - the Health Protection Agency (HPA), and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
Both of the HIV advisory bodies offer expert advice to the government from national experts; and the Health Protection Agency produces all the national HIV statistics and public health guidance, and the EHRC acts as a human rights watchdog, looking after the interests of people with HIV, among other groups.
After the election, prime minister David Cameron promised a "bonfire of the quangos" to save public money. Thousands of jobs are expected to be lost. The fate of these quangos should become clear after the autumn spending review is published in late October. Both the Expert Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS and the Independent Advisory Group of Sexual Health and HIV are unpaid advisory bodies.
Scrapping these two advisory bodies will save almost no money, but the price we would all pay would be the loss of valuable HIV expertise the Department of Health does not have among its own staff and ministers.
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