Cameron vows fresh approach to quango cull

By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - David Cameron said on Monday the Conservatives would take a fresh approach to culling Britain's 790 non-elected quangos that spend nearly 43 billion pounds a year, and singled out the media regulator Ofcom for particular attention.

"We are not doing the normal thing, which is a politician stands up and says: 'Here's the bonfire of quangos'. A great list is published, they get elected and nothing happens," the Conservative leader told BBC television.

"What we've done is look at the arguments and thought through what is it that these bodies need to do, and what should be actually returned to government departments or abolished altogether."

Quangos -- quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations -- employ more than 90,000 people and include such bodies as the Health Protection Agency, the Parole Board and the Environment Agency.

Operating outside direct government control, they aim to implement official policy in a more efficient manner by hiring specialist staff and working in a more commercial manner than the civil service.

But they have become a favourite target for opposition politicians promising to cut spending and red tape.

Cameron said many quangos had a justifiable technical function, but in too many cases they had got too big.

"They start having their own communications department, their own press officers, they start making policy rather than just delivering policy, and their bosses are paid vast amounts of money."