GovWire

It is government policy that a non-departmental public body (NDPB) should only be set up, or remain in existence, where the model can be clearly evidenced as the most appropriate and cost-effective way of delivering the function in question.

In April 2011, the Cabinet Office announced that all NDPBs still in existence following the reforms brought about by the Public Bodies Review would have to undergo a substantive review at least once every 3 years.

These triennial reviews would have 2 purposes:

• to provide a robust challenge of the continuing need for individual NDPBs, both their function and their form, employing the 3 tests discipline
• where it is agreed that a particular body should remain as an NDPB, to review the control and governance arrangements in place to ensure that the public body is complying with recognised principles of good corporate governance.

The aim of this triennial review of the MOD Advisory Group on Military Medicine (AGoMM) was to determine its utility and consider the best delivery model, including whether it should remain as an advisory Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB).