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In the United Kingdom, a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury and Scottish Executive to certain types of public bodies. They have, essentially, two types of functions: advisory and executive.
Advisory
Advisory NDPBs consist of boards, supported by a small secretariat, which advise ministers on particular policy areas and therefore introduce a degree of transparency, accountability and distance which is not available if ministers are advised by civil servants only.
Executive
Executive NDPBs usually deliver a particular public service and are overseen in doing so by a board rather than ministers. In both cases board appointments are made by ministers following the rules of the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Contrast with executive agency, non-ministerial department and quango
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 a NDPB would be established under statute and be accountable to parliament rather than to the government. This arrangement allows more financial independence since the government is obliged to provide funding to meet statutory obligations.
NDPBs are commonly referred to as quangos. However this term originally referred to bodies that are, at least ostensibly, non-government organisations, but nonetheless perform governmental functions.
History, numbers and powers
There are hundreds, if not thousands of NDPBs in the UK (PDF). It is difficult to determine how many because some are the responsibility of devolved government. Before 1997, the incoming Labour Government promised to reduce the number and power of NDPBs. Some question whether this has happened as much as it could have. [http://www.mtcp.co.uk/shows.php?id=39 Mark Thomas story on Quangos (original version) (Also BBC News Article 2005/02/11)
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.
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 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 QUANGOs. The Government accepted the recommendation, and the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments [http://www.ocpa.gov.uk/ was established in November 1995.
The use of NDPBs has continued under the Labour government in office since 1997, but the political controversy associated with NDPBs in the mid-1990s has now for the most part died away. It is not entirely clear why this occurred, though proponents of the Labour Government claim it as a result of their reforms.
Organizations that have been described (rightly or wrongly) as QUANGOs or NDPBs:
- Advertising Standards Authority
- British Board of Film Classification
- English Heritage
- Metrication Board (1969 - 1980)
- British Council
- Equal Opportunities Commission
See also
External links
Government of the United Kingdom | Government institutions | Political terms | Public bodies and task forces of the United Kingdom government
"Non-departmental public body"