Executive agency
An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive. Executive agencies are "machinery of government" devices distinct both from non-ministerial government departments and non-departmental public bodies (or "quangos"), each of which enjoy a real legal and constitutional separation from ministerial control. The model was also applied in several other countries. Size and scope. Agencies include well-known organisations such as Her Majesty's Prison Service  and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. The annual budget for each agency, allocated by Her Majesty's Treasury ranges from a few million pounds for the smallest agencies to £700m for the Court Service. Virtually all government departments have at least one agency. Issues and reports. The initial success or otherwise of executive agencies was examined in the Sir Angus Fraser's Fraser Report of 1991. Its main goal was to identify what good practices had emerged from the new model and spread them to other agencies and departments. The report also recommended further powers be devolved  from ministers to chief executives. A series of reports and white papers examining governmental delivery were published throughout the 1990s, under both Conservative and Labour governments. During these the agency model became the standard model for delivering public services in the United Kingdom. By 1997 76% of civil servants were employed by an agency. The new Labour government in its first such report – the "1998 Next Steps Report" endorsed the model introduced by its predecessor. The most recent review (in 2002, linked below) made two central conclusions (their emphasis): The latter point is usually made more forcefully by Government critics , describing agencies as "unaccountable quangos". List by department. Non ministerial departments. Not already listed above: Other countries. Several other countries have an executive agency model. In the United States, the Clinton administration imported the model, but with a modification of the name to "performance-based organizations." In Canada, executive agencies were adopted on a limited basis under the name "special operating agencies." One example is the Translation Bureau under Public Services and Procurement Canada. Executive agencies were also established in Australia, Jamaica, Japan and Tanzania.