Several Scottish bodies in charge of scrutinising public services will either be abolished or merged as part of a move to simplify the public sector and improve services, John Swinney has announced.  

John Swinney has outlined plans to create a new health scrutiny body that will merge together the functions of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, the Mental Welfare Commission, and the Care Commission.

In addition, a single body will now scrutinise body care and social work, bringing together the functions of the Social Work Inspection Agency, the Care Commission, and HMIE's child protection role.

Swinney has also announced plans to abolish the Scottish Charity Appeals Panel following a consultation, while moves will be made to simplify complaints handling.

Commenting on the announcement, he said: "In the current economic climate, it is more important than ever that all public services actively contribute to increasing sustainable economic growth. We need every ounce of effort to go on delivering first class public services.

"The changes I am announcing today will remove unnecessary burdens on staff, free up their time to focus on delivering public services and benefit people who use them."

He added: "Creating a simplified and coherent approach will help people to better understand performance and delivery of public services.

"Other changes will reduce the complexity of organisational structures and get better value for public money."

The Finance Secretary voiced his hopes that the package of structural reform will be delivered by 2011.