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An Executive Agency is a British public institution that carries out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Executive. The agencies responsible for the government of the United Kingdom consist of a number of ministerial departments (usually headed by a Secretary of State) and non-ministerial departments headed by senior civil servants. ...
The term Scottish Executive is used in two distinct but closely related senses. ...
The National Assembly for Wales (or NAW) (Welsh: Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru) was established in 1998, following a 1997 referendum in which a small majority of voters (but not the electorate) voted in favour of the Labour Governments plans for devolution. ...
The Northern Ireland Executive as established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 is the (currently suspended) executive body for Northern Ireland, answerable to the Northern Ireland Assembly. ...
It does not set the policy or determine the resources required to carry out its functions – these are fixed by a Government Department that oversees the agency. However within this framework it is intended that Executive Agencies should be free to manage the implementation of policy as they see fit.
As of July 2002, there were 127 Executive Agencies. 92 of these report to Departments within UK central Government. The remaining 35 report to the Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Executive. 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for July, 2002. ...
The Government of the United Kingdom contains a number of Ministries, known in the United Kingdom as Government Departments. ...
The term Scottish Executive is used in two distinct but closely related senses. ...
The National Assembly for Wales (or NAW) (Welsh: Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru) was established in 1998, following a 1997 referendum in which a small majority of voters (but not the electorate) voted in favour of the Labour Governments plans for devolution. ...
The Northern Ireland Executive as established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 is the (currently suspended) executive body for Northern Ireland, answerable to the Northern Ireland Assembly. ...
Size and scope
Agencies range from Her Majesty's Prison Service to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. The largest agency in terms of staff numbers is Jobcentre Plus, employing 100,000 people. The smallest is the Debt Management Office, which employs 40 staff. The annual budget for each agency, allocated by Her Majesty's Treasury ranges from a few million pounds for the smallest agencies to £700m for the Court Service to £4bn for Jobcentre Plus. Virtually all government departments have at least one agency. The Ministry of Defence has 36, the most of any department. Her Majestys Prison Service is the British Executive Agency reporting to the Home Office tasked with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own Prison Services). ...
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (the DVLA) is an agency of the Department for Transport in the United Kingdom. ...
JobCentre Plus is the government funded employment agency facility and the social security office in the United Kingdom, often operated from a high street shop. ...
The new eastern entrance to HM Treasury HM Treasury (Her/His Majestys Treasury) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for and putting into effect the UK Governments financial and economic policy. ...
The Ministry of Defence building, Whitehall, Westminster, London The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and the headquarters of the UK military. ...
Background The agencies model of government was introduced to the UK in 1988 following the publication of Improving management in Government, a report by Sir Robin Ibbs, Efficiency Adviser to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The report heavily criticised the centralized Civil Service management of public services, saying that too much work was done on policy and too little on delivery, that there was a shortage of management skills in government and that there was a focus on short-term rather than long-term goals. The chief recommendation of the report was to set up Executive Agencies, each headed by a Chief Executive, that would concentrate solely on delivery of policy rather than policy itself. The first agency, the Vehicle Inspectorate, was established in August 1988. 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is the head of government, exercising many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. ...
The Right Honourable Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925), is a British stateswoman. ...
In UK politics, the civil service of the United Kingdom is the permanent bureaucracy that administers the United Kingdom. ...
Issues and reports The initial success or otherwise of Executive Agencies was examined in the Sir Angus Fraser's Fraser Report of 1991. Its main goal was to identify what good practices had emerged from the new model and spread them to other agencies and departments. The report also recommended further powers be devolved from ministers to chief executives.
A whole series of reports and White Papers examining governmental delivery were published throughout the 1990s, under both Conservative and Labour governments. During these the agency model became the standard model for delivering public services in the United Kingdom. By 1997 76% of civil servants were employed by an agency. The new Labour government in its first such report – the 1998 Next Steps Report endorsed the model introduced by its predecessor. The most recent review (in 2002, linked below) made two central conclusions (their emphasis): A white paper can be an authoritative report on a major issue, as by a team of experts; a government report outlining policy; or a short treatise whose purpose is to educate (contrast position paper) industry customers. ...
The Conservative Party is the largest political party on the centre-right in the United Kingdom. ...
The Labour Party is the principal centre-left political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ...
- "The agency model has been a success. Since 1988 agencies have transformed the landscape of government and the responsive and effectives of services delivered by Government."
- "Some agencies have, however, become disconnected from their departments ... The gulf between policy and delivery is considered by most to have widened."
The latter point, is usually made more forcibly by Government critics, describing agencies as "unaccountable QUANGOs" [1] The term Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation (or QUANGO), attributed to Sir Douglas Hague, was originally invented as a joke, but fell into common usage in the United Kingdom to describe the agencies produced by the growing trend of government devolving power to appointed, or self-appointed bodies. ...
List A list of the agencies can be found at List of United Kingdom Executive Agencies. This is a list of United Kingdom Executive Agencies. ...
See also The Government of the United Kingdom contains a number of Ministries, known in the United Kingdom as Government Departments. ...
// Categorised Adoption Adoption and Permanence Task Force [1] Culture Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Sir John Soanes Museum, Wallace Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal Air Force Museum, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, Tate Gallery, Royal Marines Museum, Advisory Committee on Historic Wreck Sites Advisory Committee on the Government Art...
The Scottish Executive includes a number of agencies, as set out below- Accountant in Bankruptcy Communities Scotland Fisheries Research Service Historic Scotland Her Majestys Inspectorate of Education National Archives of Scotland Registers of Scotland Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) Scottish Building Standards Agency Scottish Court Service Scottish...
External links - An official, comprehensive list of EAs and their departments (click Executive Agencies on the right-hand side)
- [2] 2002 Government report into the agencies model entitled "Better Government Services – Executive agencies in the 21st century" published by The Prime Minister's Office of Public Services Reform. Contains a list of agencies. (PDF)
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