We'll miss some quangos more than others

(PA)

Many of the "quangos" are actually committees of unpaid scientists who act as independent specialist advisers on subjects ranging from the safety of pesticides to the use of gene therapy in medicine.

However, some of these groups, like the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee set up 20 years ago to deal with "mad cow" disease, may have outlived their usefulness.