All expenditures for development assistance must be authorised by Parliament in additional legislation. With the establishment of the Department for Technical Cooperation in 1961 all Third World expertise, spread over several Ministries, was concentrated in one organisation. A Minister for Development Cooperation, who holds the position of Foreign and Commonwealth Minister of State, heads the Overseas Development Administration and is under responsibility of the Foreign Secretary. The latter two are to merge after 1996. ODA is responsible for policy formulation and implementation.
Actual implementation is delegated to various types of institutions.
Staff based in Embassies and High Commissions in Commonwealth countries assist in administering aid programmes. The NRI is part of the aid administration and is directly responsible to the Minister for Development Cooperation. Crown Agents for Overseas Governments and Administration provide procurement and management services to governments of developing countries, to the UK and other donors. In formulation, implementation and evaluation of development policy, the Government cooperates with NGOs, research institutes and private enterprise. Allocations of responsibility, at ministerial as well as on administrative level, between the Aid Administration on the one hand and the Foreign Policy Departments of the FCO and the Treasury on the other, traditionally have been subjects of regular discussions.