Institute for Government – Analysis of Arms lengths bodies – One key theme of Liz Truss’s speech on modernising Defra was getting its various arm’s-length bodies (ALBs) and the main department to work in alignment. The Secretary of State would like the various organisations in the Defra departmental group to make plans around shared policies, rather than working in discrete fiefdoms, and to reflect this joint working through the adoption of shared operational functions.

Compared to other departments, Defra has the fourth largest number of ALBs according to Public Bodies 2015. A considerable number of these have been abolished since 2010, as we saw in Whitehall Monitor 2015. To achieve her goal, Liz Truss will have to coordinate the department’s 34 arm’s length bodies, as depicted in the ‘orbit’ chart below (we have listed 26 entities, having combined the nine small Regional Advisory Committees and Forestry and Woodlands Advisory Committees).

http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/13209/environmental-awareness-defra-arms-length-bodies-and-datasets/

It covers: the number of ALBs/department, the Defra ALBs and their status, Head counts for the Defra ALBs, Government funding for the Defra ALBs and interestingly how much data & information these ALBs provide and how often it is used.