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Government

Headings on this page :

Introduction

Much of the website is concerned with government - for example :

• Government (Parliament) creates laws, with Acts and Regulations (eg regarding control of charitable house-to-house clothing collections).
• Government regulates charities.
• Government regulators (eg local authorities) are responsible for the licensing, monitoring and enforcement aspects of charitable collections.

So we've created this page to provide a brief introduction to government for anyone not familiar with it.

The government's Directgovwebsite gives links to all government organisations, both central and local. It acts as a 'portal' - in other words it's a stepping-stone to various sites (a sort of directory).  We strongly recommend it.

Government - one of three sectors

Government is one of three sectors :

1. the public sector   = government
2. the private sector = for-profit organisations - eg companies
3. the third sector     = not-for-profit organisations - eg charities.

See the 'sectors' section of the Definitions page for more on this.

Government - variations across the UK

This page applies only to England.

In the rest of the UK there are some differences - eg :

• Scotland has its own parliament.
• Wales has the Welsh Assembly.

See the Variations across the UK page.

Levels of government

In essence, there are two levels of government :

• central government
• local government.

Note - Regional government:  This is a third level, sandwiched between central and local government.  However, regional government is small, has limited powers and has no impact on the subjects dealt with on the website.

Below we take a closer look at central and local government.

Central government

This consists of :

• Parliament - the House of Lords (peers) and the House of Commons (MPs).
   =the legislature. They make the laws ('Acts of Parliament')
• The judiciary - the judges and the courts (civil and criminal); independent
• The executive - 'Whitehall' departments (civil servants) - eg the Home Office.
  The ministers of the elected government are in charge.

In addition to the 'Whitehall' departments (which we refer to as 'core government'), there are numerous government agencies (QUANGOs) - these are answerable to government departments, but independent to varying degrees.  For example :

• The Charity Commission (overseen by the Office of the Third Sector)
• The Office of Fair Trading (OFT)
• The Environment Agency.

See the section on QUANGOs below for more on these agencies.

Local government

Local government consists of two to three tiers (ie levels), typically :

1. County councils  =the top/uppermost tier
2. District, borough and city councils  =the middle tier
3. Town councils and parish councils  =the bottom/lowest tier.

Three-tier areas - Around 50% of England has all three of these tiers.  Typically there's about five district councils within a county. District and borough councils are more or less the same type of organisation.

Two-tier areas - An increasing number of areas have only two tiers.  With these, instead of county and district/borough councils, they have one upper-tier council, known as a 'unitary authority'.

London comprises :

• Greater London Authority (GLA)  =the upper tier
• London Boroughs (30 or so in all) - eg the London Borough of Westminster.

The people working in local government consist of :

• councillors - the elected representatives (the local government equivalent of MPs) =usually unpaid apart from expenses
• officers - ie paid employees.

Local government includes the following regulators :

• licensing departments - including licensing of charitable house-to-house collections
• trading standards departments (TSDs)
• the police.

See the Regulators page for details.

Town councils and parish councils - These form the lowest tier of local government.  These councils have relatively few powers, and none of these affect the issues on the website.

Privatisation and nationalisation

Privatisation - Over the years, some government organisations have been privatised (sold off), so they become part of the private sector.  Examples:  coal and steel production, railways, water authorities, gas, electricity, telephones, the Stationery Office.

Nationalisation - Conversely, some organisations in the private sector have been taken into government ownership (ie nationalised).  Examples:  Railtrack, Northern Rock Bank.

QUANGOs, NDPBs and executive agencies

Alas, the 'world' of QUANGOs is complicated (and controversial).

• The acronym 'QUANGO' stands for 'Quasi-Autonomous-Non-Governmental Organisation'.
• An alternative term is 'Non-Departmental Public Body' (NDPB).
• Related terms used include 'executive agencies' and 'arm's length public bodies' .

QUANGOs mushroomed from the 1960s onwards.  There are now thousands of them in the UK - for example the BBC, the Charity Commission, Consumer Direct and the Arts Council.  See Wikipedia  for further explanation.

Usually QUANGOs are wholly 'owned' and financed by government (normally central government).  However,  they have a degree of independence in terms of their day-to-day operations (hence the use of the term 'arm's length').

Typically a QUANGO is answerable to a specific government department.  Examples :

• the Charity Commission is answerable to the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) - which is part of the Cabinet Office in Whitehall.
• Consumer Direct is answerable to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) - a 'non-ministerial government department'.

'Non-QUANGOs' - We use this term to mean not-for-profit organisations which are not QUANGOs or core government.  In other words, these organisations are wholly independent of government.

The non-QUANGO category includes the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), most charities (including Which?), trade bodies, professional bodies, and the Plain Language Commission.  Sometimes it can be difficult initially to tell whether an organisation is a QUANGO or not.

Identifying QUANGOs, non-QUANGOs and commerce :

• QUANGOs :
  Their names tend to include terms such as:
  - 'Council' (eg the British Council), 'Commission', 'Authority', 'Board'.
  Their websites tend to use the 'gov.uk' suffix.
• Non-QUANGOs (not-for-profit) :
  Their names tend to include terms such as:
  - 'Association', 'Society', 'Institute', 'Foundation', 'Trust', 'Group', 'Bureau'.
  Their websites tend to use the 'org' or 'org.uk' suffix.
• The commercial (for-profit) sector :
  Their names tend to include terms such as:
  - '& Co', 'Limited'/'Ltd', 'PLC', 'LLP', '& Associates'.
  Their websites tend to use the 'co.uk' or 'com' suffix.

However, there are many exceptions to these rules of thumb.

Bear in mind that only government organisations (ie core government and QUANGOs) are :

• subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FoI)
• covered by the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Local Government Ombudsman.

Government :
Related pages and Useful links

Note:  There are no red double-arrow symbols next to the external links below.

1. Central government

2. Local government

3. Local government - individual councils

4. Government - ombudsmen

 

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