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Government Offices for the English Regions (GOs) were established in 1994 by the John Major government. Until 2011, they were the primary means by which a wide range of policies and programmes of the Government of the United Kingdom were delivered in the regions of England.
There were Government Offices in the East Midlands, East of England, London, North East, North West (until 1998 there was a separate GO for Merseyside), South East, South West, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions.
The Offices represented thirteen Whitehall departments, and were involved in regenerating communities, fighting crime, tackling housing needs, improving public health, raising standards in education and skills, tackling countryside issues and reducing unemployment.
By the time of their abolition, there were twelve Whitehall Departments represented in the Offices:
The abolition of the Government Offices was announced in the Coalition Government's Spending Review in October 2010. [1] It was stated at that time that "The GO Network will therefore close no later than the end of March 2011. Functions undertaken by the GO Network are now in the process of being wound down, with the exception of a small number which may transfer elsewhere." [2]
Metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, with populations between 1 and 3 million. They were created in 1974 and are each divided into several metropolitan districts or boroughs. Following the abolition of metropolitan county councils in 1986, metropolitan counties no longer form a part of local government in England. Most of their functions were devolved to the metropolitan boroughs, making the boroughs effectively unitary authorities; any remaining functions were taken over by joint boards.
The parliamentary committees of the United Kingdom are committees of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Each consists of a small number of Members of Parliament from the House of Commons, or peers from the House of Lords, or a mix of both, appointed to deal with particular areas or issues; most are made up of members of the Commons. The majority of parliamentary committees are select committees. The remit of these committees vary depending on whether they are committees of the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
The regional chambers of England were a group of indirectly elected regional bodies that were created by the provisions of the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998. There were eight regional chambers, one for each of the regions of England except Greater London, which had opted for an elected mayor and assembly in 1998. All eight regional chambers had adopted the title "regional assembly" or "assembly" as part of their name, though this was not an official status in law. The chambers were abolished over a two-year period between 31 March 2008 and 31 March 2010 and some of their functions were assumed by newly established Local authority leaders' boards.
Southern England, also known as South of England or The South, is sub-national part of England; with cultural, economic and political differing from both the Midlands and the North, the Midlands being a dialect chain in a notable north–south divide of England. The sub-national area's official population is nearly 28 million and an area of 62,042 square kilometres (23,955 sq mi): roughly 40% of United Kingdom's population and approximately a quarter of its area.
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 March 2010 and was replaced by the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency.
Strategic health authorities (SHA) were part of the structure of the National Health Service in England between 2002 and 2013. Each SHA was responsible for managing performance, enacting directives and implementing health policy as required by the Department of Health at a regional level.
In the United Kingdom, regional development agencies (RDAs) were nine non-departmental public bodies established for the purpose of development, primarily economic, of England's Government Office regions between 1998 and 2010. There was one RDA for each of the NUTS level 1 regions of England. Similar activities were carried out in Wales by the Welsh Government Department of Economy and Transport, in Northern Ireland by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and in Scotland by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and governed by a board of 15 directors. It was funded from various sources including The National Lottery. John Woodward was the Chief Executive Officer of the UKFC. On 26 July 2010, the government announced that the council would be abolished. Although one of the parties elected into that government had, for some months, promised a bonfire of the Quangos, Woodward said that the decision had been taken with "no notice and no consultation". UKFC closed on 31 March 2011, with many of its functions passing to the British Film Institute.
The regional arts boards were English regional subdivisions of the Arts Council of Great Britain
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government in England and the levelling up policy. It was established in May 2006 and is the successor to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, established in 2001. The department shares its headquarters building, at 2 Marsham Street in London, with the Home Office. It was renamed to add Housing to its title and changed to a ministry in January 2018, and later reverted to a government department in the 2021 reshuffle.
Peterborough City Council is the local authority for Peterborough in the East of England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. The City was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1874; from 1888, it fell within the jurisdiction of the Soke of Peterborough county council and from 1965, Huntingdon and Peterborough county council. In 1974, it was replaced by a wholly new non-metropolitan district, broadly corresponding to the Soke, in the new enlarged Cambridgeshire. In 1998, Peterborough became independent of Cambridgeshire as a unitary authority, but the city continues to form part of that county for ceremonial purposes as defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997.
BBC England is the division of the BBC responsible for local and regional television, radio and web services in England, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. Previously called BBC English Regions, it is one of the BBC's four "nations" – the others being BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Northern Ireland, and BBC Scotland.
The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) was an independent, non-departmental public body sponsored by the UK Department of Health. The Commission was established by and act of Parliament on 10 December 2002 with a remit "to establish a new system of patient and public involvement in health for England involving traditionally hard to reach groups" – however, there was no agreed budget or management structure in place at that time. The Commission operated from September 2003 until March 2008 when it was replaced with local involvement networks (LINks), involvement mechanisms that extend public involvement to health and social care.
Local authority leaders' boards are voluntary regional associations of council leaders that have been established in England outside of Greater London to replace certain functions of the now abolished regional chambers. The establishment of the boards was part of the UK Government's Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration. which brought forward the Government's plans to alter the structure of regional governance in England and was mandated by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. In June 2010, the new Conservative-LibDem coalition government announced plans to remove funding from the new boards and to remove their statutory functions. It was indicated that the boards might continue as voluntary associations of council leaders.
The South West Observatory (SWO) was a regional resource for the South West of England, originally established by the former South West Regional Development Agency, Government Office for the South West, and the South West Regional Assembly as a partnership for use by policy-makers to aid and improve evidence-based decision-making. It operated from 2002 - 2013.
The regions, formerly known as the government office regions, are the highest tier of sub-national division in England, established in 1994. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within government. While they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. While the UK was a member of the European Union, they defined areas (constituencies) for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament. Eurostat also used them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) regions within the European Union, which in 2021 were superseded by International Territorial Level (ITL) regions. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, established in the 1940s for statistical purposes.
The Leeds City Region, or informally Greater Leeds, is a local enterprise partnership city region located in West Yorkshire, England. Prior to the West Yorkshire devolution deal, the partnership covered parts of South and North Yorkshire. According to the Office for National Statistics, as of 2017 the city region ranked 2nd behind Greater London for both population and GVA in the United Kingdom. It has a population of 2,320,214 million and a GVA of £69.62 billion.
In England, regional ministers were appointed from 2007 on a part-time basis as part of Her Majesty's Government. Each minister had other departmental responsibilities, as well as specific responsibilities for one of the English regions. Their stated role was "to provide a clear sense of strategic direction for the nine English regions and to help strengthen their links with central government."
In England, local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) are voluntary partnerships between local authorities and businesses, set up in 2011 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to help determine local economic priorities and lead economic growth and job creation within the local area. They carry out some of the functions previously carried out by the regional development agencies which were abolished in March 2012. In certain areas, funding is received from the UK government via growth deals.
International Territorial Level (ITL) is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of the United Kingdom for statistical purposes, used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Between 2003 and 2021, as part of the European Union and European Statistical System, the geocode standard used for the United Kingdom were Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS. The NUTS code for the UK was UK and the NUTS standard had a hierarchy of three levels, with 12 first level regions, which are currently mirrored by the ITL classification, of which 9 regions are in England. The sub-structure corresponds to administrative divisions within the country. Formerly, the further NUTS divisions IV and V existed; these have now been replaced by Local Administrative Units . Between 1994 and 2011, the nine regions had an administrative role in the implementation of UK Government policy, and as the areas covered by elected bodies.