Institutional arrangements - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 160

time of writing (2007) reflected important government initiatives then in progress.
The detailed structure of the Department can be viewed at www.dft.gov.uk/about/
10.3 Devolved government and regional administration
Central Government functions relating to particular parts of the country, and especially
its dealings with local authorities, have always been managed through some system of
regional offices. For many years these were outposts of individual departments and
had an organisation and culture not unlike overseas colonies. (Civil servants working
in them who began to show sympathy with the views of their local populations rather
than with their masters in Whitehall would be criticised for 'going native'.) Until
devolution Scotland and Wales were treated somewhat differently with the range of
domestic responsibilities managed collectively by the Scottish and Welsh Offices each
answerable to their own Secretary of State who had Cabinet status.
The physical division of England into what are referred to as 'standard' regions
is a compromise between geographical and administrative considerations (see Figure
10.2 in section 10.6 below). Functionally and culturally, regions such as the South-
West for example might be better described as a set of sub-regions each of which has
as much affinity with others in neighbouring regions as its own. The most obvious
geographical anomaly is the subdivision of South-East England into three separate
regions: London, the South-East (largely south of the River Thames) and the East
of England - the latter including East Anglia which was formerly administered as a
separate region. The explanation for this is Civil Service concern to devise regions
which have comparable status and involve broadly similar scales of administrative
responsibility. The current pattern does however have the unfortunate effect of
separating London from much of its functional hinterland and means that the overall
planning of the nation's most important economic region has to be dealt with by ad
hoc arrangements. It also produces the rather confusing outcome of Greater London
itself being both an administrative 'region' of Central Government and also a single
unit of 'local' government (10.6).
In 1994 an important change was introduced in England in an attempt to break the
'silo' pattern of individual government departments each pursuing their own agendas
in the same region. A series of 'integrated' government offices was established in each
region (GORs) which brought together staff from the then transport, environment,
trade and education departments. (They have since been extended to all domestic
departments other than the Treasury.) Although they receive funding from the
individual central departments the allocation of this within the region is planned and
managed in a cross-sectoral manner.
In dealings with local authorities the work of GORs includes giving comments
on development plans and local transport plans (LTPs), discussing grants, loans
or borrowing approval required of central government (including the design and
progressing of individual major schemes), and the processing of various types of order
(e.g. highway, traffic management or compulsory purchase) which require ministerial
consent. As well as issuing decisions or observations 'downwards' to local authorities
the regional offices act as the source of local information and advice 'upwards' to the
headquarters of the individual government departments. Thus regional offices will
assemble and forward material to DfT HQ in London relating to LTP bids in their
area for example, or transport or development proposals which may be the subject of
a public inquiry.