The Quango Website People There are currently about 30,000 public appointments in the United Kingdom. The majority of these are made by Ministers, based on the principle of selection based on merit.
Public appointments are, quite simply, appointments to the boards of public bodies.
They include appointments to the boards of executive and advisory quangos, nationalised industries, public corporations and NHS bodies. A Directory lists many of the current holders of a public appointment. It can be searched by the name of a person, an organisation, or Government Department overseeing the appointment. The Directory is updated on 1 April and 1 September each year. The annual publication Public Bodies provides additional information about the organisations concerned and about the appointments to them - including information on gender, ethnicity and remuneration.