Commons select committees would be able to scrutinise ministerial appointments to key public sector jobs under a new plan put forward by MPs.

A public administration committee report on patronage in the British political system concluded that there should be greater examination of candidates chosen for key jobs.

But the MPs stopped short of suggesting that they should be able to veto individual appointments.

Instead, their report suggested that a more limited reform could allow for more effective scrutiny of ministers' actions "without allowing party political considerations to dominate the process".

Under the plan ministers would inform the relevant Commons select committees of any major public appointment, such as the chairman of the BBC, industry regulators or the major watchdogs.

"The relevant committee would have the right to hold a hearing, if it chose to do so, before the appointment of the candidate was confirmed," said the report.

"We do not propose that the committee would explicitly confirm such appointments, but that in those cases where it was the view of the committee that a proposed appointee was unsuitable then it should have the power to enter a Letter of Reservation, leading to the competition for the post in question to be reopened."

The MPs said such a reform would strike "a sensible balance", with the new powers expected to be used only rarely.

Committee members backed the reform as a way to ensure proper accountability of the government's wide ranging patronage powers.

However, they accepted that there was "no evidence of any systematic subversion" of the Nolan principles on good governance.

There was also a swipe at media headlines of "Tony's cronies" without sufficient evidence to justify them.

"We suspect that the rhyming appeal of 'Tony ' and 'Crony ' is too strong for some newspapers to resist, despite the absence of evidence to support many of the allegations," said the report.

But ministers were told that while there were few cases of poor practice, accepting reform of the system could help to prevent accusations of wrong doing.

"Ministers now find themselves in a half-way house: they can no longer determine appointments in a partial (or even impartial) way as their predecessors once could; yet they retain enough direct involvement in the process to leave them open to allegations of cronyism," said the report.

"This state of affairs harms public confidence in government and politics in this country as well as in any particular government, minister or quango board."