Here are their main proposals for the crucial cuts which make up the £12bn difference between the Tory and Labour overall spending plans.

The Tories would use £8bn of the savings to cut borrowing and £4bn to offer tax cuts.

• Save £21m by cutting the number of public bodies

• Reduce staff and Courts Service "bureaucracy", cutting £100m

• Cut budget for Judicial Appointments Commission by £3m

• Merge Unified Courts Agency with other agencies in the department, saving £29m

• Save £3m by scrapping plans for a Supreme Court to replace the Law Lords in the House of Lords as the highest court of appeal

• Scale back the Data Protection Office, saving £10m

• Reform Legal Aid, saving £126m

• Reverse the department's "mission creep" - the Tories say it has taken on tasks it should not be doing, costing £8m

• Close Creative Partnerships, a cultural programme for children costing £45m

• Cut "intrusive enforcement" by the Environment Agency, saving £47m

• Reduce the amount of activities done by the central department and cut the number of staff, pocketing £52m

• Discontinue or transfer £15m worth of functions from English Nature

• Reshape the Countryside Agency as a body making rural grants, saving £33m

• End the economic regeneration role of the Forestry Commission, costing £36m

• Save £112m by getting an outside company to run the Rural Payments Agency

• Scrap the rule, established during the BSE crisis, that the government should buy cattle over 30 months old to take them out of the food chain - saving £98m

• Restrict the Food Standards Agency to consumer protection work only, reducing costs by £64m

• Create a slimmer Department for Business, cutting staff in the process to save £187m

• Axe the number of staff working for UK Trade and Investment, which supports UK companies working internationally and overseas firms wanting a British base, saving £52m

• Abolish the Small Business Service and some other business support schemes, worth £496m

• Scrap three New Deal schemes, saving £666m

• Outsource Jobcentre Plus and introduce a new Work First programme for young people, saving £923m

• Save £174m by cutting the number of public bodies

• Cut staff at inspection service Ofsted, saving £73m

• Cut £136m worth of staff at the department generally

• Cut staff overseas, saving £37m

• Reduce staff costs by £109m

• Cut staff and start building 20,000 extra prison places - saving £40m

• Cut administrative staff in prison and probation service, saving £35m

• Use a new Australian-style agency to reduce administration of the asylum system and cut costs by £897m

• Increase private housing finance so there can be £400m in cuts to the public sector

• Reduce the role of regional development agencies, saving £365m

• Abolish the regional chambers - the forerunners to the elected regional assemblies, which have yet to get the go-ahead - worth £18m

• Make the department only a Department for Local Government, cutting costs by £215m

• Save £1bn by abolishing the Best Value and Comprehensive Performance Assessment schemes, used to check how local councils are working

• Reduce Customs and Excise support services by £75m

• Cut staff, saving £38m

• Cut advertising budget by £200m

• Spend £500m less on consultants

• Save £107m by cutting civil servants' absenteeism

• End enhanced early retirement scheme for civil servants, saving £185m