Plans to axe scores of quangos will not deliver significant savings or improve accountability, MPs have warned.

A cross-party Commons committee carried out a review of the government's cull of quangos and concluded the whole process was "botched".

Sir Ian Magee, who gave evidence to the committee, said that "simplification" of the system was certainly necessary, but that the reality of cutting back the quangos was "not quite as easy when it comes to the crunch".

The minister in charge, Francis Maude, admitted that it had not been a "perfect process".

"We could have had a leisurely bureaucratic review," he said. "We have got on with things."

The minister argued that the quango shake up would save "significantly more" than £1bn and would clear up the "hugely chaotic landscape" they inherited from Labour.

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