Ministers have been accused of reneging on promises to start a “bonfire of the quangos” and of simply moving many functions elsewhere in Whitehall. In a Coalition announcement on the semi-independent bodies, Francis Maude refused to say how many jobs might be at risk.

Instead, the Cabinet Office Minister claimed his main intention was to restore accountability to swathes of government.

From now on, he said, elected representatives rather than faceless quango bosses would take responsibility if something went wrong.

Labour called Mr Maude “the most expensive butcher in history” who appeared to cut but offered few savings.

In total, 192 public bodies, including the Film Council, the Audit Commission and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), are to be abolished. A further 118 will be merged and 40 are still under consideration.

But analysis of the 192 shows just 29 will disappear altogether. Some 30 will turn into “committees of experts”.

Mr Maude said: “For too long this country has tolerated ministers who ducked the difficult decisions they were elected to make. For too long we have had too many people who are unaccountable with a licence to meddle in people’s lives.”

He said pay was out of control, citing seven Audit Commission executives earning more than £150,000 a year. But where abolished bodies’ functions were important they would return to government departments, he said.

Business welcomed the cull. Miles Templeman, director-general of the Institute of Directors, said: “The Government now needs to ensure that eliminating and reforming quangos is just the beginning of a wider process of moving to a smaller state.”

But Liam Byrne, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: “The Tories need to tell us whether their desperation for headlines and faster cuts means the cost of closing quangos is actually bigger than the savings.”

There was dismay at some changes. The chief coroner’s office, established this year, will be scrapped.

Chris Simpkins, the Royal British Legion’s director general, said it was “absolutely central” to ensuring that deaths of Service personnel were properly investigated.

The Environment Department will lose 90 arm’s length bodies. Natural England and the Environment Agency will be shaken up. The Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission will merge and the Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group will be scrapped.

Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, and Ofqual, the exams regulator, survive. The functions of the HFEA, which regulates fertility clinics, will move to other regulators.

Quangos whose functions return to Whitehall include the Disability Living Allowance/Attendance Allowance Advisory Board and the Appointments Commission.

George Osborne’s spending review next week will be “a shower, not a hurricane”, according to a report by economist Tim Morgan for the Centre for Policy Studies. It will be “both modest and essential”.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8065436/Bonfire-of-quangos-is-a-smokescreen-that-will-cost-money.html