Most people know very little about public appointments and so they fill in the gaps with headlines from newspapers

Dame Rennie Fritchie

She has made similar criticisms in the past herself - attacking the Labour government in March for making politically-motivated appointments to health authorities and NHS trusts.

The government may address these concerns in its response to a report from the Neill Committee, which called for the number and powers of ministerial special advisers to be limited.

Labour bias

The commissioner's report shows that last year more than 9% per cent of people appointed to public bodies and nearly 15% of the chairpeople appointed by public bodies were politically active in the Labour Party, while only 3% were Tory party activists.

A government spokesman defended the statistics on the basis that experience of political activity could enhance an individual's usefulness on a public body.

Dame Rennie said that she would be starting a project in November to increase public awareness of quangos and appointments to them.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Most people know very little about public appointments and so they fill in the gaps with headlines from newspapers.

Reflecting society

"There are a lot of really good people doing a good job, but we haven't got enough of a broad range of people who reflect society on these bodies."

She said she was "interested" the government had acted on her criticisms about health authority appointments in March.

"I am looking forward to seeing whether more of them are followed up in the NHS national plan," she said.

End to patronage?

It is possible the plan will include a new commissioner overseeing NHS appointments, which Dame Rennie said she would welcome as "a step away from patronage".

The Tories faced a barrage of similiar criticisms in government for appointing a host of supporters to influential positions.

And Tony Blair has made a virtue of giving some political opponents high-profile jobs. Former Tory ministers David Mellor and Chris Patten, for example, have places on the football task force and European Commission respectively.