Thursday's figures cover those working in central government and public quangos but not local authorities.
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But it is unlikely that those who sit on quangos are being entirely selfless.
They include the usual boilerplate about wringing efficiencies from the bureaucracy and getting rid of quangos.
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Unlike statutory quangos, such as the anti-discrimination authority or the competition commission, these bodies mostly give advice.
The first minister accused the Leader of the Opposition of being inconsistent for attacking quangos last week.
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Quangos - which stands for quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations - are semi-independent publicly-funded agencies used by the assembly government.
There should be more consultation and stronger powers for Parliament to object to ministerial proposals on quangos, he argued.
Ministers dodge responsibility for decisions delegated to quangos, often appointed by ministers themselves, or to the Bank of England.
When the Labour party was in opposition, it often criticised the Conservatives for packing quangos with its own supporters.
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In July this year, First Minister Rhodri Morgan said that most Welsh quangos would be abolished within two years.
Alun Cairns (Conservative, North Wales) asked why the First Minister has not implemented a bonfire of quangos as promised.
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Quangos - quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations - are semi-independent agencies of the assembly government.
The School Food Trust is losing its status as a public body, as part of ministers' drive to cut quangos.
Mr Byrne said the Conservative proposals included the creation of at least another 17 quangos, a claim rejected by the Tories.
More than 100 quangos have been axed and a further 90 merged into other bodies since the coalition came to power.
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) said it was pleased that the number of quangos would be reduced through the merger.
The first minister told him to get himself straightened out before asking to burn quangos and protect them at the same time.
BBC: No war on England, the First Minister declared this week.
We must actively campaign to bring central government, the police, the NHS and quangos into the searchlight of open government and public scrutiny.
The Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine was abolished last year - one of 192 quangos to be axed by the government.
One virtue of the Ferry affair is that it has exposed the messy tangle of quangos and commissions in France, many of which do little.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats called for greater powers of scrutiny in the assembly following the decision to move the quangos' work into the assembly government.
It also abolishes a number of education quangos, including the the QCDA (Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency), which Mr Blunkett described as "very worrying factor".
With quangos being appointed rather than elected and control of the Welsh Office being decided by how England voted, none of this was very democratic.
The powers of the Welsh Office were extended and a host of new quangos were set up to monitor and govern Thatcher's free market state.
Quangos semi-attached bodies charged with carrying out governmental functions have proliferated under Labour.
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Every month over a thousand surveillance operations are carried out, not just by law enforcement agencies but by other public bodies like councils and quangos.
The problem now is how to give regional quangos democratic legitimacy.
He added that this could delay the abolition of some of the quangos, as could the fact that some of them were protected by royal charter.
The RDAs were one of the first casualties of the incoming coalition government's spending cuts and its drive against what many Conservatives dismissed as "unaffordable quangos".
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