I am today announcing the start of the triennial reviews of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the British Pharmacopoeia Commission (BPC), the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), the Administration of Radioactive Substances Advisory Committee (ARSAC) and the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP).

All Government Departments are required to review their non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) at least once every three years. Due to the wide ranging reforms made by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, the

Department was exempt from the first round of reviews in 2011-14. In order to ensure that the Department is an effective system steward and can be assured of all the bodies it is responsible for, we have extended the programme of reviews over the next three years to all of its arm’s length bodies and Executive agencies.

The reviews of the aforementioned bodies have been selected to commence during the first year of the programme (2014-15). The reviews will be conducted in two stages. The first stage will examine the continuing need for the function and whether the organisation’s form, including operating at arm’s length from government, remains appropriate. If the outcome of this stage is that delivery should continue, the second stage of the review will assess whether the bodies are operating efficiently and in line with the recognised principles of good corporate governance.

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