Business secretary Vince Cable said he will close the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property policy (SABIP), SITPRO (Simplifying International Trade) and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Advisory Body (WAB). All will close in the next year. The British Shipbuilders' Corporation will also be abolished next year.

The functions of SABIP will pass to the Intellectual Property Office, and the functions carried out by the remaining organisations will be passed to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

BIS has now announced plans to abolish, merge, or cut funding for a total of 17 non-departmental bodies (NDPBs).

Cable said: "I have already said that I want to reduce the number of these bodies by a third, and we’ve achieved a lot in a short space of time. This is the latest phase of that work.

“By bringing these functions back into government, we make their activities more accountable and can reduce the considerable administrative costs that they place on the taxpayer.”

The department has also announced a review of the Design Council, an executive NDPB sponsored by BIS and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The review will be led by Martin Temple, chairman of machine tool manufacturer The 600 Group, and will consider the future role and status of the body. A statement from BIS said the review is part of the government’s commitment to reduce the number and cost of quangos as well as to consider the implementation of the March 2010 Dyson Report, which recommended a review of the funding, objectives and impact of the Design Council.

Temple will present his recommendations to ministers in September 2010.