This Practice Note discusses the nature and status of three types of public bodies: ‘non-departmental public bodies’ or ‘NDPBs’, Executive agencies of government, and non-ministerial departments. What they have in common is that they are part of government, but are not themselves traditional government departments headed by ministers (although in the case of executive agencies, they are a part of such a department). They are collectively called ‘arm’s length bodies’ because they are said to operate ‘at arm’s length’ from government.

Rarely, a public body can fall into more than one of these categories. The Government Legal Department is both a non-ministerial department and an executive Agency sponsored by the Attorney General’s Office.

To take one central government department as an example, the Department for Education currently works with 18 agencies and public bodies including two non-ministerial departments (Ofqual and Ofsted), three executive agencies, nine executive NDPBs and one advisory NDPB. These numbers are subject to change from time to time.