Non-departmental Public Body on:
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In the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the
Cabinet Office,
Treasury, the
Scottish Government and the
Northern Ireland Executive
The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the ...
to
public sector organisations that have a role in the process of national government but are not part of a government department. NDPBs carry out their work largely independently from ministers and are accountable to the public through
Parliament; however, ministers are responsible for the independence, effectiveness and efficiency of non-departmental public bodies in their portfolio.
The term includes the four types of NDPB (executive, advisory, tribunal and independent monitoring boards) but excludes public corporations and public broadcasters (
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,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
and
S4C).
Types of body
The UK Government classifies bodies into four main types. The Scottish Government also has a fifth category:
NHS bodies.
Advisory NDPBs
These bodies consist of boards which advise ministers on particular policy areas. They are often supported by a small secretariat from the parent department and any expenditure is paid for by that department.
Executive NDPBs
These bodies usually deliver a particular public service and are overseen by a board rather than ministers. Appointments are made by ministers following the Code of Practice of the
Commissioner for Public Appointments. They employ their own staff and are allocated their own budgets.
Tribunal NDPBs
These bodies have jurisdiction in an area of the
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
. They are co-ordinated by
His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, an
executive agency
An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or N ...
of the
Ministry of Justice, and supervised by the
Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council, itself a NDPB sponsored by the Ministry of Justice.
Independent monitoring boards
These bodies were formerly known as "boards of visitors" and are responsible for the state of prisons, their administration and the treatment of prisoners. The
Home Office is responsible for their costs, and has to note all expenses.
Contrast with executive agencies, non-ministerial departments and quangos
NDPB differ from
executive agencies
An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Nor ...
as they are not created to carry out ministerial orders or policy, instead they are more or less self-determining and enjoy greater independence. They are also not directly part of government like a
non-ministerial government department being at a remove from both ministers and any elected assembly or parliament. Typically an NDPB would be established under
statute and be accountable to
Parliament rather than to
His Majesty's Government
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. This arrangement allows more financial independence since the government is obliged to provide funding to meet statutory obligations.
NDPBs are sometimes referred to as
quango
A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi-NGO", where N ...
s. However, this term originally referred to quasi-NGOs bodies that are, at least ostensibly,
non-government organisations, but nonetheless perform governmental functions. The
backronym
A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...
"quasi-autonomous national government organization" is used in this usage which is normally pejorative.
History, numbers and powers
In March 2009 there were nearly 800 public bodies that were sponsored by the UK Government. This total included 198 executive NDPBs, 410 advisory bodies, 33 tribunals, 21 public corporations, the
Bank of England, 2 public broadcasting authorities and 23 NHS bodies. However, the classification is conservative and does not include bodies that are the responsibility of
devolved government
Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories ...
, various lower tier boards (including a considerable number within the NHS), and also other boards operating in the public sector (e.g. school governors and police authorities).
These appointed bodies performed a large variety of tasks, for example
health trusts, or the
Welsh Development Agency
Welsh Development Agency (WDA; cy, Awdurdod Datblygu Cymru) was an executive agency (or QUANGO) and later designated an Assembly Sponsored Public Body (ASPB). Established in 1976, it was tasked with rescuing the ailing Welsh economy by encour ...
, and by 1992 were responsible for some 25% of all government expenditure in the UK. According to the Cabinet Office their total expenditure for the financial year 2005–06 was £167 billion.
Criticism
Critics argued that the system was open to abuse as most NDPBs had their members directly appointed by
government ministers without an election or consultation with the people. The
press, critical of what was perceived as the
Conservatives' complacency in power in the 1990s, presented much material interpreted as evidence of questionable government practices.
This concern led to the formation of a
Committee on Standards in Public Life
The Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom Government, established by John Major in 1994 to advise the Prime Minister on ethical standards of public life. It promotes a code o ...
(the Nolan Committee) which first reported in 1995 and recommended the creation of a "public appointments commissioner" to make sure that appropriate standards were met in the appointment of members of NDPBs. The Government accepted the recommendation, and the
Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments was established in November 1995.
While in opposition, the
Labour Party promised to reduce the number and power of NDPBs. The use of NDPBs continued under the Labour government in office from 1997 to 2010, though the political controversy associated with NDPBs in the mid-1990s for the most part died away.
In 2010 the UK's Conservative-Liberal coalition published a review of NDPBs recommending closure or merger of nearly two hundred bodies, and the transfer of others to the private sector. This process was colloquially termed the "bonfire of the quangos".
Classification in national accounts
NDPBs are classified under code S.13112 of the
European System of Accounts The European System of Accounts (ESA) is the system of national accounts and regional accounts used by members of the European Union. It was most recently updated in 2010 (ESA 2010).
The ESA 95 is fully consistent with the United Nations System of ...
(ESA.95). However,
Statistics UK does not break out the detail for these bodies and they are consolidated into General Government (S.1311).
See also
*
Executive agency
An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or N ...
*
Non-ministerial government department
*
Quango
A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi-NGO", where N ...
*
Regulatory agency
*
Scottish public bodies
Public bodies of the Scottish Government are organisations that are funded by the Scottish Government. They form a tightly meshed network of executive and advisory non-departmental public bodies ("quangoes"); tribunals; and nationalised industr ...
*
Statutory agency
*
Statutory corporation
*
Welsh Government sponsored bodies
A Welsh Government sponsored body (WGSB) ( cy, Corff (plural: Cyrff) a Noddir gan Lywodraeth Cymru, CNLC) is a non-departmental public body directly funded by the Welsh Government. Under the Government of Wales Act 1998 the bodies were sponsored ...
References
External links
Civil Service information about NDPBs (from the UK Government Web Archive)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Non-Departmental Public Body
Government of the United Kingdom
Government bodies
Political terminology