Section menu

The BERR family

Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) aims to improve organisations and working life through better employment relations. Provides up-to-date information, independent advice, high quality training and work with employers and employees to solve problems and improve performance.

Business Link provides the information, advice and support needed to start, maintain and to grow a business.

Companies House incorporates and dissolves limited companies; examines and stores company information delivered under the Companies Act and related legislation; and makes this information available to the public.

Companies Investigation Branch (CIB) conducts confidential enquiries into existing companies where there is suspicion of corporate abuse. It is part of the Insolvency Service executive agency.

The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the official receiver, to establish why they became insolvent; authorises and regulates the insolvency profession; deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures; assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees. The Companies Investigation Branch of the (former) DTI transferred to the Insolvency Service on 1 April 2006.

The Office of Fair Trading is responsible for making markets work well for consumers. Achieves this by promoting and protecting consumer interests throughout the UK, while ensuring that businesses are fair and competitive.

UK Trade & Investment is the government organisation that provides integrated support services for UK companies engaged in overseas trade, and foreign businesses focused on the UK as an inward investment location.

A full list of the delivery partners of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is set out below.

It covers BERR’s agencies, executive non-departmental public bodies, advisory non-departmental public bodies, and other key partners.

Executive Agencies

• Companies House
• The Insolvency Service

Executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies

• ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service)
• Civil Nuclear Police Authority (CNPA)
• Coal Authority
• Consumer Council for Postal Service (CCPS) (Postwatch)
• Competition Commission
• Competition Service
• Gas & Electricity Consumer Council (GESS) (Energywatch)
• Hearing Aid Council
• Local Better Regulation Office
• National Consumer Council (NCC)
• Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA)
• Regional Development Agencies 
  • Advantage West Midlands (AWM)
  • East of England Development Agency (EEDA)
  • East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA)
  • North West Development Agency (NWRDA)
  • One North East (ONE)
  • South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)
  • South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA)
  • Yorkshire Forward
• SITPRO - Simplifying International Trade
• United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)

Advisory Non-Departmental Public Bodies

• Advisory Committee on Carbon Abatement Technologies
• Better Relation Commission
• Fuel Poverty Advisory Group
• Industrial Development Advisory Board
• Low Pay Commission
• Regional Industrial Development Boards (RIDB)
• Renewables Advisory Board
• Union Modernisation Fund Supervisory Board
• UK Chemical Weapons Convention National Authority Advisory Committee

Tribunals

• Central Arbitration Committee (CAC)
• Competition Appeal Tribunal
• Insolvency Practitioners Tribunal
• Persons Hearing Consumer Credit Licensing Appeals
• Persons Hearing Estate Agent Appeals

Public Corporations

• British Energy Group plc
• British Nuclear Fuels Plc (BNFL)
• British Shipbuilders
• Office of Communications (OFCOM)
• Royal Mail Holdings Plc

Central Government Organisationss

• Nuclear Liabilities Fund (company limited by shares)

Non-Ministerial Departments

• Office of Fair Trading (OFT)
• The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem)
• The Postal Services Commission (Postcomm)

Local Authorities

• London Development Agency

Other Bodies

• Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) is a department outside BERR that also reports to the Secretary of State for BERR
• Financial Reporting Council (FRC)
• Citizens Advice Bureaux