Petition Debate the future of the Public Sector

The UK workforce currently totals around 29 million of which around 6 million (20%) work in the public sector. These include the Civil Service, Armed Forces, National Health Service (NHS), local government, education and police. It also includes the BBC, Royal Mail, BNFL, the nationalised banks and hundreds of quangos.

Some, such as the NHS, Armed Forces and emergency services are fondly regarded. Privatisation would not be desirable or practical. However, many public sector organisations have fallen into disrepute for reasons that range from cost, not doing what the public wants, performing poorly, not being accountable, grossly inflated salaries, expenses malpractice etc etc.

Would the British public get better value if the government outsourced or privatised some of them? The government should host a major debate on privatising or outsourcing these organisations, and defend the reasons for keeping them in the public sector.