Ministers draw up list in the 'bonfire of the quangos'

Government ministers have revealed a list of 177 taxpayer-funded bodies which will be abolished in a "bonfire of the quangos".

Reports last night suggested the Cabinet Office list includes the Health Protection Agency, which provides advice on infectious diseases and environmental hazards, and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates fertility clinics.

A further four bodies will be privatised and 129 merged, while another 94 - including the BBC World Service - are still under threat of being scrapped. If confirmed, the cull of public bodies will save billions of pounds from government spending, cost thousands of jobs and spark enormous political controversy.