The Public Bodies Bill, devised to write into legislation new government powers to merge or scrap public bodies, has been published in Parliament.

The Public Bodies Bill (PBB) is published subsequent to the "quango cull" announcement of 14 October which saw 192 quangos de-listed as public bodies or abolished altogether and a further 118 lined up to merge.

The PBB will give ministers the power to abolish or merge public bodies, to modify the constitutional or funding arrangements of a quango, to transfer its functions or to delegate a body's functions. 

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude (pictured) said: "We believe the responsibility for difficult and important decisions should lie with ministers, not unelected quango officials, and we plan to implement the changes as rapidly as possible."

But during the first reading of the Bill, the government was  criticised by Baroness Royall of Blaisdon for not opening the Bill to pre-legislative scrutiny: "May I suggest... that the Public Bodies Bill should be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny? There has been little or no consultation on it but it will affect millions of our citizens," she said.

The Commission for the Compact and Capacitybuilders were confirmed as two organisations to be scrapped in last month's announcement but they have confirmed that as non-statutory organisations they would be scrapped regardless of the Bill. 

Both organisations will cease all activities from 31 March next year.

The Bill, which was started in the House of Lords, will undertake its second reading in the House of Commons on 9 November.