Advisory bodies
128
Major projects and delivery bodies
68
Safety and licensing bodies
27
Cultural institutions
23
Justice and prosecutorial enforcers
20
Economic or sectoral regulators
18
Grant and subsidy issuing bodies
13
Research, innovation and development bodies
8
ALBs serve a broad range of functions. This section provides an overview of the purpose of ALBs by grouping them into nine categories, which were self-reported by ALBs. An ALB can belong to up to three categories and these are ranked in order of priority. However every ALB is unique, and these categories only provide a broad overview of the work that ALBs do.
94 bodies had more than one type of purpose in 2022/23. 78% of bodies in the landscape had either advisory or delivery and major programmes as their primary purpose.
8 ALBs primarily focussed on research and development or other kinds of innovation, whereas 18 performed it as either their secondary or tertiary function instead. There were 17 bodies who had a purpose that did not fit into one of the main categories, however no bodies had a primary purpose from the Other category.
116 Advisory NDPBs had an advisory purpose out of the 117 in the landscape. 82% of Executive Agencies worked on major programmes and delivery, and 39% had more than one purpose.
Executive NDPBs performed a wide range of functions. 36% did delivery and major programmes, % provided advice, 21% did safety, licensing and regulation and 21% had a cultural purpose.
Non-Ministerial Departments also had a wide range of purposes with 55% doing delivery and programmes, 30% are economic and sectoral regulators and 25% work on safety, licensing and regulation
All departments except HMRC had ALBs that performed advisory functions and all except FSA had bodies that performed major programmes and delivery for them. In particular, the FSA, MOJ and FC ALBs’ focus was majoritively dedicated to advice and for OSSS, HMT and HMRC it was on delivery and programmes.
ALBs under DEFRA and DCMS had the broadest range of purposes spanning 9 and 8 categories respectively. Only 6 departments had ALBs that served a cultural purpose and that was the least common category across department out of all purposes.
Proportion of focus of departments’ ALBs. Figures reflect the all purposes of a departments’ ALBs and therefore makes no distinction between the order of priority of the purposes. You can double click a purpose category to see the proportions for just that purpose.
When viewed by primary purpose, the majority of all budgeted funding allocated to ALBs (67%) was attributable to grant and subsidy issuing bodies, who received £236.84 billion. This largely reflects the budgets of NHS England and Education and Skills Funding Agency. Most of the remaining budgeted funding allocated to ALBs went to major programmes and delivery organisations, who received £108.41 billion (30.7%), whilst £8.04 billion (2.3%) went to ALBs with other purpose types.
There were 119 bodies who performed advisory functions but served no other purpose. 43% of bodies who primarily worked on delivery and major programmes also had another purpose. Out of the bodies that had a primary purpose of safety, licensing and regulation, 19% of them had a secondary purpose that did not fit into the main purpose categories.
You can explore the full structure of the purpose of ALBs by clicking on the boxes. The first layer that you see is their primary purpose, the second is their secondary and the third their tertiary.
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