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20-745: The Tribunals Service was an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice in the United Kingdom between April 2006 and March 2011. The Tribunals Service was responsible for: The Tribunals Service was created in response to Sir Andrew Leggatt 's review of the UK tribunal system, entitled Tribunals for Users: One System, One Service , published in August 2001. Leggatt criticised the then existing system for administrating many tribunals, in particular he observed that some tribunals were not independent of

40-670: A newly created agency. The government's plans came to fruition in April 2006, when the Tribunals Service was created out of the 16 tribunals that were already administered by the Department for Constitutional Affairs , together with a number transferred from other government departments. An example of the latter is the Social Security and Child Support Appeals Tribunal which was supplied with administrative support by

60-543: A small secretariat from the parent department, and any expenditure is paid for by that department. 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 allocate their own budgets. These bodies have jurisdiction over an area of

80-653: 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 Northern Ireland Executive . Executive agencies are "machinery of government" devices distinct both from non-ministerial government departments and non-departmental public bodies (or " quangos "), each of which enjoy legal and constitutional separation from ministerial control. The model has been applied in several other countries. Agencies include well-known organisations such as His Majesty's Prison Service and

100-609: Is responsible for their costs and has to note all expenses. NDPB differ from executive agencies 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 . This arrangement allows more financial independence since

120-1042: The Appeals Service , which was formerly an executive agency in its own right, reporting to the Department for Work and Pensions . In 2010 it was announced that the service would merge with Her Majesty's Courts Service to form a new unified body for all courts and tribunals in England and Wales. this merger took place on 1 April 2011 with the formation of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service . Executive agency King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee An executive agency

140-629: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency . The annual budget for each agency, allocated by HM Treasury , ranges from a few million pounds for the smallest agencies to £700m for the Court Service . Virtually all government departments have at least one agency. 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

160-561: The law . They are coordinated by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service , an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice , and supervised by the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council , itself an NDPB sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. 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

180-507: 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". NDPBs are classified under code S.13112 of

200-594: 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 , various lower tier boards (including a considerable number within the NHS), and also other boards operating in

220-479: 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. A later review (in 2002, linked below) made two central conclusions (their emphasis): " The agency model has been a success . Since 1988 agencies have transformed the landscape of government and

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240-702: The United States, the Clinton administration imported the model under the name "performance-based organizations." In Canada, executive agencies were adopted on a limited basis under the name special operating agencies . One example is the Translation Bureau under Public Services and Procurement Canada . Executive agencies were also established in Australia, Jamaica, Japan and Tanzania. Non-departmental public body The term includes

260-461: The administrative bodies over which they were supposed to exert control; and that there was no uniformity of administration between the many tribunals. The Leggatt report was followed by a white paper in July 2004, entitled Transforming Public Services: Complaints, Redress and Tribunals , which, amongst other recommendations, proposed bringing together a number of tribunals under the administrative of

280-638: 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

300-419: The four types of NDPB (executive, advisory, tribunal, and independent monitoring boards) but excludes public corporations and public broadcasters ( BBC , Channel 4 , and S4C ). The UK Government classifies bodies into four main types. The Scottish Government also has a fifth category: NHS bodies . These bodies consist of boards which advise ministers on particular policy areas. They are often supported by

320-490: The government is obliged to provide funding to meet statutory obligations. NDPBs are sometimes referred to as quangos . However, this term originally referred to quasi-NGOs bodies that are, at least ostensibly, non-government organisations , but nonetheless perform governmental functions. The backronym "quasi-autonomous national government organization" is used in this usage which is normally pejorative. In March 2009 there were nearly 800 public bodies that were sponsored by

340-407: 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 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

360-611: 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 , 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. As of March 2020, there were 237 non-departmental public bodies. Critics argued that

380-421: The responsive and effectiveness 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 forcefully by critics of the government, describing agencies as "unaccountable quangos ". Several other countries have an executive agency model. In

400-683: 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 Nolan Committee) which first reported in 1995 and recommended

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