One in four axed in the bonfire of the quangos

More than a quarter of these groups are set to disappear, with 192 abolished and 118 merged, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude announced yesterday.

But with many of the quangos simply remaining in an altered form such as trusts or charities, question marks hang over whether the cull will save any money at all.

Yesterday it was understood that just 19 of the quangos affected Scotland directly, although many others had Scottish equivalents which are now coming under scrutiny.

It was unclear last night what would happen to British Waterways Scotland with its UK parent body set to become a trust.

Meanwhile, there was anger over the loss of the UK Film Council, which had already been announced, but has provided support for the film industry north of the Border.

The decision to scrap the British Shipbuilders quango was seen in some quarters as symbolic of what might happen to the industry if the aircraft carriers contracts are scaled back or cancelled in next week's Strategic Defence and Security Review.

In the Commons, Mr Maude acknowledged that there would "inevitably" be job losses as a result of the changes, although he would not be drawn on numbers.

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He rejected claims by Labour that they would actually increase costs.

"There will be savings as a result of this process," he said.

But shadow cabinet office minister Liam Byrne said Mr Maude was simply completing a process begun by the previous Labour government which had announced plans to axe 123 quangos, which accounted for two-thirds of those on the list.

He said that whereas Labour's plan would have saved 500 billion by 2013, the government's approach could actually lead to increased costs.

"I am afraid the minister has become the most expensive butcher in the country," he said

There was also scepticism from the Tory backbenchers.

Tory former Cabinet minister John Redwood asked: "How will we be less bossed about and over-regulated as a result of these changes?"

To laughter, Labour's Denis Skinner then shouted: "Not very much."

One MP who was happy was former minister Tom Watson, who has led a long-running campaign to shed light on the workings of the government's wine-buying regime, welcomed the news but called for details of the cellar now to be made public.

The Foreign Office's Government Hospitality Advisory Committee on the Purchase of Wines was abolished yesterday.

"It was faintly ridiculous in the first place that a group of senior mandarins would be called in by the Foreign Office to test-quaff the world's best wines," he said.

"Now that they have been abolished, ministers have the responsibility to tell us what bottles lie deep in the ministerial wine cellar."

And the move received approval from the Taxpayers Alliance, which argued that it would lead to savings.

Miles Templeman, Director-General of the Institute of Directors, added: "The previous government was too keen on delegating policy-making to bodies outside government departments. This created an ambiguity about where responsibility for policy-making resided, a problem that hasn't gone away."

But unions criticised the move and raised fears over jobs/

In particular, unions criticised the decision to put British Waterways into the charity sector. Unison raised fears a lack of funding could see the country's waterways fall into disrepair and claimed the move was a "missed opportunity" to turn the network into a national park.

Unite warned that vital maintenance work could be left to volunteers if funding was not found to pay engineers, raising the risk of flooding to buildings along the banks of the network of canals and rivers managed by British Waterways.