Tories attack £46.5 billion quangos bill

Spending on quangos has risen dramatically since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, official figures showed.

Cabinet Office statistics disclosed last night that "executive non-departmental public bodies" cost £46.5 billion in 2008/9.

That was up from £37 billion in 2006/7. Mr Brown took over from Tony Blair in June 2007.

Bodies covered by the figures include regional development agencies and organisations like the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the Environment Agency and the Healthcare Commission.

It also included museums, galleries and the Arts Council for England.

But the figures do not include many other organisations that are regularly bracketed in the "quango" category.

The Tories criticised the soaring cost of the sector and the lack of transparency about how much each of the bodies was spending individually.

Shadow cabinet office minister Francis Maude said: "Gordon Brown continues to burn taxpayers' money on a quango gravy train, making a mockery of his claims to deliver a new politics.

"This whole tier of bureaucracy lacks proper accountability and transparency over how they spend our money.

"Conservatives would require all public bodies to publish more information on their expenditure, transfer powers from unelected bodies to local communities, and make administrative savings whilst protecting frontline services like hospitals."

The Public Bodies 2009 report defined non-departmental bodies as those which have "a role in the processes of national government, but is not a government department or part of one, and which accordingly operates to a greater or lesser extent at arm's length from ministers".