​Scotland is swamped by “hundreds, if not thousands” of quangos, and new ones keep cropping up, a parliamentary body has heard.

The Scottish government has created about 130 quangos – arm’s length organisations – that are now costing the taxpayer about £6.6 billion a year.

David Hamilton, the information commissioner, told a meeting of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body on Thursday that he had been “astonished” by the “sheer volume of public bodies” in Scotland. “There are literally hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of public bodies and … I keep finding new ones,” he said.

He said that he and Stephen Boyle, the auditor-general, played “public authority bingo”, asking “Have you heard of this one? Have you heard of that one?​”

He added: “It’s just such a hidden group … a complicated landscape across the whole public sector with this. And that’s just in organisations I’m aware of.

“The third sector support is another thing. So when we get organisations supported by the Scottish government, by legislation to deliver services, that’s another whole sector there where you need to look at the whole thing in the round and say, well, there’s probably duplication going on, probably, just by the sheer number of organisations.”

​He added: “I think there’s even a department in the Scottish government for public bodies but I haven’t yet discovered who that is or where that is​.”

Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative party leader, has called for a cull of public bodies along the lines of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in the US to put an end to waste and duplication of resources.

Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative spokesman for finance and local government​, said: “The information commissioner’s jaw-dropping evidence lays bare the industrial-scale waste of taxpayers’ money under the SNP.

“John Swinney’s government has supersized the state with bloated quangos and talking shops. The Nationalists have no regard for value for money, or ensuring even the most basic oversight on how public money is spent.

“We urgently need a clampdown on this appalling misuse of public funds, and genuine accountability. That’s why Russell Findlay has said the Scottish Conservatives will establish a unit to eradicate waste and cut the number of government working groups by at least a third.”

Audit Scotland recently said the scale of public sector workforce reform that will be required to deliver sustainable public services in coming years is greater than that seen in recent years.

It said the government would need to “deliver change quickly given the scale of the challenge ahead. Historically, there has been an implementation gap between public sector reform ambitions and the ability of the Scottish government to deliver change on the ground.”

A Scottish government spokesman said: “Public bodies have a vital role in delivering the Scottish government’s objectives and are key in areas such as health services, administering the justice system and supporting sustainable economic growth.

“The Scottish government is working to ensure public services are sustainable, efficient and effective. Our work in this area is expected to save up to £280 million over a two year period by the end of 2024-25.

“We have also streamlined the public sector landscape by reducing the number of Scottish public bodies under our control from 199 in 2007 to 131 as at 1st December 2024.”