The

Government of the United Kingdom His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

is divided into departments that each have responsibility, according to the government, for putting government policy into practice. There are currently 24 ministerial departments, 20 non-ministerial departments, and 422 agencies and other public bodies, for a total of 465 departments.

Ministerial departments

Ministerial departments are generally the most high-profile government departments and differ from the other two types of government departments in that they include ministers. A list of all ministerial departments is shown below.

Non-ministerial departments

Non-ministerial departments are headed by

civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

and usually have a regulatory or inspection function. A list of all non-ministerial departments is shown below.

Agencies and other public bodies

Government departments in this third and final category can generally be split into five types: *

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 Nort ...

, which usually provide government services rather than decide policy * Executive

non-departmental public bodies In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of na ...

, which do work for the government in specific areas * Advisory non-departmental public bodies, which provide independent and expert advice to ministers * Tribunal non-departmental public bodies, which are part of the justice system and have jurisdiction over a specific area of the law * Independent monitoring boards, which are responsible for the running of prisons and the treatment of prisoners

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