News that QUEST, the arts and culture watchdog, has ceased to exist (p3) may surprise many.
Why? Because, firstly it?s no longer news ? it happened in during the summer of 2002. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, what those of us working within the arts and cultural sectors might regard as newsworthy is patently not regarded as such by the Government through the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS). (Indeed, in its first response to our enquiries earlier this month about the apparent demise of QUEST, DCMS press office itself seemed to be unaware that the unit had been closed.)
The decision not to renew funding for QUEST was taken quietly and certainly without the type of public announcement that accompanied its birth in December 1998. Consequently it has to date, not been reported elsewhere. At its launch, where a commitment was made to ?renewable? three-year funding, QUEST was championed by then Culture Secretary Chris Smith as the key agency charged with a specific task to ?identify, evaluate and promote good practice in the delivery of outputs related to DCMS objectives?? and to ?provide independent advice to the Secretary of State??. At the time, we and many other commentators warmly welcomed the decision to set up the watchdog (ArtsBusiness issue 40, December 6, 1999). We did so because of a belief that the management and application of public resources requires on-going independent assessment to ensure that factors such as value-for-money, management of risk and delivery of excellence in its many forms could be assured and that where successes and failures occurred, lessons could subsequently be learned and shared.
To simply delete this independent body and subsume selected aspects of its role into DCMS itself at the end of its first term ? and to do so apparently without any public statement ? raises numerous questions. Did DCMS feel that QUEST failed in its mission? If so, why? And if it has absorbed many of the tasks formerly within the remit of QUEST, who will now be providing independent advice to the current Secretary of State, or is this role no longer required? Which former QUEST tasks will now be permanently dropped?
A Government that is all too happy to use ?spin? to generate interest when launching new initiatives must expect to raise similar interest when it does a U-turn; more so when it forgets to tell anyone.