Scorn over quango crackdown

Mr McLeish pledged a radical look at quangos

Opposition parties have poured scorn on the Scottish first minister's pledge of a tough new line against quangos.

Henry McLeish says the unelected public bodies will have to prove to him that they deserve cash - or even remain in existence.

But political opponents say they have heard it all before.

Speaking on BBC Newsnight Scotland, Mr McLeish said he is ready to tackle things like care for the elderly, quangos, proportional representation for local government elections and the future structure of the Scottish Parliament.

Mr McLeish wants a "pragmatic" approach

After what some observers have described as a "lacklustre" start to his new role as first minister, Mr McLeish said he favours "progressive pragmatism".

Mr McLeish has promised a new hard line on Scotland's 120 quangos.

He said he would challenge all the publicly-funded bodies to justify their existence and the public money they receive.

He said: "I intend to implement fairly soon a radical third wave approach to looking at quangos.

"That will mean that every quango will be asked the why question.

'Excessive patronage'

"Why do they exist? What are they doing? Who are they representing? How much money are they spending?

"Secondly I want to make sure there aren't any 'jobs for the boys'. I don't like excessive patronage. I have an enormous number of places I can fill. Why shouldn't that be shared with other ministers?"

But Scottish National Party leader John Swinney said his party had been calling for a bonfire of the quangos for years.

"The problem is that Labour has promised this and have failed to deliver, but they had better deliver this time," he said.

I hope the first minister will consider working with me to implement the bill as soon as possible

Alex Neil, SNP MSP

His colleague Alex Neil welcomed Mr McLeish's commitment - and urged the first minister to back a private members bill he is steering through parliament.

He said Mr McLeish's treatment of the bill would be an indicator of how serious the Scottish Executive is about bringing quangos to account in Scotland.

The SNP MSP said: "This bill sets out to do the very thing Henry McLeish has spoken about and I hope the first minister will consider working with me to implement the bill as soon as possible."

The first minister also told Newsnight Scotland that he would like to implement the Sutherland Report in full, funding personal care for the elderly in long-stay homes.

Parly changes

He also said that he would look closely at a review of how this could be done and how the executive would find the £100m annually needed to pay for it.

Mr McLeish made it plain he is against cutting the size of Scotland's Parliament.

The number of Scots MPs at Westminster is due to be cut and the legislation says that the Scottish Parliament should shrink in proportion.

Henry McLeish said he will look to change the law.

He said: "I speak to no-one in the Scottish Parliament from any political party who thinks then there should be an automatic link with a cut in the number of MSPs going to Edinburgh."