Andrew Lansley said in a statement on 26 July 2010 that he planned to abolish several arm's length bodies following a review, including the Health Protection Agency and the National Patient Safety Agency and in 2012 the Appointments Commission, "in view of the very substantial reduction in the number of appointments required".
But he also announced that the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre, currently a special health authority, will be put on a firmer statutory footing through establishing it in primary legislation. In future, it will have a "clearer focus on data collection, with a close working relationship with the NHS Commissioning Board," the announcement said.
Other bodies given a strengthened role include the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellent (Nice), which similarly will be established in primary legislation. Monitor will expand from covering only foundation trusts to become an economic regulator of all NHS trusts. NHS Blood and Transplant will also be retained, but will be reviewed to make it more commercially effective, with its Bio-Products Laboratory moved into a Department of Health-owned company.
The NHS Business Services Authority will be "retained in the short term" but reviewed from a commercial point of view, with the option of moving functions away from arm's length bodies.
The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement will stop being an arm's length body, with functions linked to quality improvement moved to the NHS Commissioning Board and other areas will be reviewed as to whether they can be delivered "through alternative commercial delivery models".
"Over the years the sector has grown to the point where overlap between organisations and duplication of effort have produced a needless bureaucratic web," said Lansley on the 18 arm's length bodies covered by the review. "By making sure that the right functions are being carried out at the appropriate level, we will free up significant savings to support front-line NHS services."
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