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The Government of the United Kingdom is divided into departments. These, according to the government, are responsible for putting government policy into practice. [1] There are currently 24 ministerial departments, 20 non-ministerial departments, and 422 agencies and other public bodies, for a total of 465 departments. [2]
Ministerial departments are generally the most high-profile government departments and differ from the other two types of government departments in that they include ministers. A list of all ministerial departments is shown below.
Non-ministerial departments are headed by civil servants and usually have a regulatory or inspection function. [50] A list of all non-ministerial departments is shown below.
Government departments in this third and final category can generally be split into five types: [50]
The Home Office (HO), also known as the Home Department, is a ministerial department of the British Government, responsible for immigration, security, and law and order. As such, it is responsible for policing in England and Wales, fire and rescue services in England, visas and immigration, and the Security Service (MI5). It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism, and ID cards. It was formerly responsible for His Majesty's Prison Service and the National Probation Service, but these have been transferred to the Ministry of Justice.
The Scottish Government is the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a department of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the entire United Kingdom. Concordats set out agreed frameworks for co operation, between it and the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive, which have devolved responsibilities for these matters in their respective nations.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a UK government agency responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in Great Britain. It is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom with its headquarters in Bootle, England. In Northern Ireland, these duties lie with the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland. The HSE was created by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and has since absorbed earlier regulatory bodies such as the Factory Inspectorate and the Railway Inspectorate though the Railway Inspectorate was transferred to the Office of Rail and Road in April 2006. The HSE is sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions. As part of its work, HSE investigates industrial accidents, small and large, including major incidents such as the explosion and fire at Buncefield in 2005. Though it formerly reported to the Health and Safety Commission, on 1 April 2008, the two bodies merged.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a department of His Majesty's Government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the UK, such as broadcasting.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwise devolved to the Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive. It oversees the English National Health Service (NHS). The department is led by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care with three ministers of state and three parliamentary under-secretaries of state.
The Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland, often referred to as, and formerly officially called, the Scotland Office, is a department of His Majesty's Government headed by the Secretary of State for Scotland and responsible for Scottish affairs that lie within HM Government's responsibility.
Thomas Harris is a British journalist and former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow South, formerly Glasgow Cathcart, from 2001 to 2015. A former member of Scottish Labour, he left the party in August 2018. Since 2021 he has been lead non-executive director of the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland and Advocate General for Scotland.
His Majesty's Advocate General for Scotland is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, whose duty it is to advise the Crown and His Majesty's Government on Scots law. The Office of the Advocate General for Scotland is a ministerial department of His Majesty's Government. The position is currently held by Lord Stewart of Dirleton.
HM Revenue and Customs is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of state support, the administration of other regulatory regimes including the national minimum wage and the issuance of national insurance numbers. HMRC was formed by the merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise, which took effect on 18 April 2005. The department's logo is the St Edward's Crown enclosed within a circle.
The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) was a non-ministerial directorate of the Scottish Government that administered the registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adoptions in Scotland from 1854 to 2011. It was also responsible for the statutes relating to the formalities of marriage and conduct of civil marriage in Scotland. It administered the census of Scotland's population every ten years. It also kept the Scottish National Health Service Central Register.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is a ministerial department of His Majesty's Government, headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor. Its stated priorities are to reduce re-offending and protect the public, to provide access to justice, to increase confidence in the justice system, and to uphold people's civil liberties. The Secretary of State is the minister responsible to Parliament for the judiciary, the court system, prisons, and probation in England and Wales, with some additional UK-wide responsibilities, e.g., the UK Supreme Court and judicial appointments by the Crown. The department is also responsible for areas of constitutional policy not transferred in 2010 to the Deputy Prime Minister, human rights law, and information rights law across the UK.
The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) is a non-ministerial government department that regulates qualifications, exams and tests in England. Colloquially and publicly, Ofqual is often referred to as the exam "watchdog".
Chloe Rebecca Smith is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich North since 2009. A member of the Conservative Party, she previously served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from September to October 2022 and Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology from April to July 2023.
His Majesty's Government is the central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The government is led by the prime minister who selects all the other ministers. The country has had a Conservative-led government since 2010, with successive prime ministers being the then leader of the Conservative Party. The prime minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, known as the Cabinet.
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education, apprenticeships, and wider skills in England.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and international borders; but it can be tasked to investigate any crime. The NCA has a strategic role as part of which it looks at serious crime in aggregate across the UK, especially analysing how organised criminals are operating and how they can be disrupted. To do this, it works closely with regional organised crime units (ROCUs), local police forces, and other government departments and agencies.
National Records of Scotland is a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government. It is responsible for civil registration, the census in Scotland, demography and statistics, family history, as well as the national archives and historical records.
gov.uk is a United Kingdom public sector information website, created by the Government Digital Service to provide a single point of access to HM Government services. The site launched as a beta on 31 January 2012, following on from the AlphaGov project. The website uses a modified digital version of the Transport typeface called New Transport. It officially replaced Directgov and the online services of Business Link on 17 October 2012. As of January 2023, GOV.UK is the second-most-used government website worldwide, after Russia's Gosuslugi.
Malcolm Ian Offord, Baron Offord of Garvel is a Scottish financier and Conservative Party politician in the House of Lords. He currently serves as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exports.