| The Public Bodies Liaison Committee for British Paganism |
Definition of 'public bodies'
Public bodies are defined in a civil servant organisation's website as follows:
The first category of public body is comprised of Parliament itself, and the bodies which report direct to Parliament, including the National Audit Office, the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Electoral Commission.
The second category of public body is comprised essentially of those who work for Government departments which report to Ministers, including Executive Agencies such as the Benefits Agency and the Patent Office.
The third category of public body is comprised of a number of non-Ministerial Government Departments (NMGDs), which themselves include two main categories. The first contains financial bodies such as the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. The second contains ‘independent’ bodies such as the Charity Commission, Ofsted and the economic regulators, such as the Office of Fair Trading, and the Postal Services Commission. The Government published a draft Bill in November 2004 which lists Non-Ministerial Government Departments, as follows:
- Assets Recovery Agency
- Board of Inland Revenue
- Central Office of Information
- Crown Prosecution Service
- Her Majesty's Customs & Excise
- Export Credit Guarantee Department
- Food Standards Agency
- Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (OFGEM)
- Government Actuary's Department
- Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
- Government Offices for the Regions
- Her Majesty's Land Registry
- Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers
- National Savings and Investments Office
- Office for National Statistics
- Office of Fair Trading
- Office of Rail Regulation
- Office of the International Rail Regulator
- Office of the Parliamentary Counsel
- Ordnance Survey
- Postal Services Commission
- Public Records Office
- Public Works Loan Board
- Royal Mint
- Serious Fraud Office
- Her Majesty's Treasury
- Treasury Solicitor's Department
- Water Services Regulation Authority
- Advisory, Conciliation an Arbitration Service
- Companies House
- Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate
- Health and Safety Executive
- Forestry Commission
- The Social Fund Commissioner's Independent Review Service
- Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England (OFSTED)
- Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman
- Traffic Area Offices
A large number of civil servants also work in the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
There are a wide variety of other public bodies who do not generally employ civil servants (other than on loan from government departments). The main categories are:
- Non-Departmental Public Bodies, often known as Quangos.
- The National Health Service
- The Armed Forces
- Public Corporations
- Local Authorities
There are around 1000 NDPBs (non-departmental public bodies, more popularly known as ‘Quangos’ - Quasi Autonomous Non-Government Organisations).
The National Health Service is in a category of its own as a huge central government organisation which has a large degree of independence but is otherwise constitutionally quite similar to NDPBs. It does not employ civil servants, other than on loan from e.g. the Department of Health.
The Armed Forces are another major central government employer of public servants who are not civil servants.
Other public servants, but not civil servants, work for public corporations such as the BBC, the Bank of England, the communications regulator Ofcom, Royal Mail Group, British Nuclear Fuels, and the British Waterways Board.
The Financial Services Authority is a special case in that, although it is a limited company financed by the financial services industry, it exercises statutory powers and is treated for many purposes as part of government. Nevertheless, its employees are not civil servants.
Last, but not least, a great many public servants work for local authorities of various shapes and sizes, as well as in the police service.