Labour's quango state costs £6.5bn

Labour has overseen a massive expansion of the "quango state", costing the taxpayer billions of pounds a year, a report claims today.

The study reveals 111 quangos have been set up since Tony Blair came to power in 1997. These new quasi-independent bodies cost £6.5 billion a year to run and come despite Mr Blair's promise to conduct a "bonfire of the quangos".

Opposition parties seized on the report to question Labour's commitment to cut back on waste and bureaucracy in Whitehall.

The annual report for the Centre for Policy Studies by the Efficiency in Government Unit reveals there are 529 quangos in Britain. It says many are useless or duplicate

each others' work. It cites the Carbon Trust, set up in 2001 to reduce CO2 emissions, which has overlapping responsibilities with the Energy Savings Trust set up in 1993.

Similarly, the report questions the need for the Countryside Agency, the Environment Agency and English Nature. Tory deregulation spokesman John Redwood welcomed the study report as a "lucid guide".

The study, called the Essential Guide to British Quangos 2005, reveals the costliest quango is the Legal Service Commission at £2.1 billion a year.