Blog：Quangos

Cutting the cost of politics is one of David Cameron’s key themes. The Tory leader has said he would cut ministerial salaries and reduce the number of MPs, as well as slashing quangos.
Labour has also vowed to squeeze Whitehall spending.
Mr Clegg says he would freeze ministers’ salaries and cut the number of them on the government payroll from more than 100 to 73.
He would also halve the number of departmental spin doctors.
He told BBC News: “We could save billions by scrapping entire government departments and culling quangos.
“Doing politics differently and saving money means dismantling Labour’s spin machine by halving the number of government press officers and making political parties pay for their own special advisers.”
The Liberal Democrats went into the 2005 election promising to close eight government departments, including what was then the Department of Trade and Industry, but the latest proposals go slightly further.
Mr Clegg says he wants to cut the number of government departments from 24 to 14.
Quangos he wants to see culled include regional development agencies – a long-standing policy commitment – but also less well-known bodies such as the School Food Trust, Teachers TV, the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and the Covent Garden Market Authority.
The document also proposes a reduction in the budget of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency.