The Tories have unveiled plans to save up to £5.7 billion from the education budget

Shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin and shadow education secretary Tim Collins launched the latest tranche of planned Conservative cuts to Whitehall running costs on Monday.

The review has been led by corporate troubleshooter David James and is the key plank of what Letwin calls his plan to "trim the fat" of government bureaucracy.

The Opposition want to divert resources into frontline health and education services and also hope to offer limited tax cuts at the next general election.

The Departments of Health, Trade and Industry and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have already been earmarked for savings.

But critics accuse the Tories of proposing to take resources away from schools and hospitals by offering cuts that go far beyond those proposed in the Treasury-commissioned Gershon review.

Letwin and Collins outlined a reduced role for local education authorities, with school funds coming directly from the Department for Education and Skills.

The arrangement would be managed by staff in Whitehall - although the department would see 2,700 posts axed under the party's plans.

Schools inspector Ofsted would also be slimmed down under the Tories, while the planned universities access regulator would be scrapped.

The efficiency savings identified by the James committee would free up £1.3 billion more than those planned by Labour, who have already pledged to cut one third of the ministry's headquarters staff.

'Extra cash'

Letwin said: "The education department typifies the fat and bloated bureaucracy that Labour has created.

"These proposals will remove vast swathes of unnecessary government control over education spending, and put large sums of extra cash in the frontline where it belongs."

Collins added that teachers would welcome the announcement.

"It is essential that more money should go to frontline schools to help teachers, and less on paying for bureaucrats who simply harass them," he said.

"Our public spending plans already envisage increasing funding for schools by a third over four years - a rise of £15 billion a year.

"The savings recommended by the James Committee would enable more than a further billion pounds a year on top of this to be made available for schools.

"There can also be little doubt that few will miss the quangos, bureaucracies and paper-shuffling empires which we will sweep away as part of these changes."