A highly critical report into the dome by the official spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, is expected to list a catalogue of errors by the government. The NAO report is expected to focus on flawed estimates of visitor numbers and poor financial management of the project.

The subject of dome mismanagement was the source of heated exchanges between William Hague and Tony Blair in the House of Commons yesterday.

The prime minister countered Conservative attacks by highlighting Hague's membership of the committee - GEN36 - that decided to go ahead with the "attraction" using a visitor estimate of 16 million - higher, even, than Labour's later 12 million miscalculation. The exchanges indicate that the government's strategy is to "tough it out" on the dome and its cost to the public purse of over £800 million.

The report comes as Lord Falconer stands accused of "rewriting history" by ordering cuts in a book about the dome.