Volume 15: Government and Public Administration
9. Local government
Introduction

9.1 Local authorities undertake various functions in their area on behalf of central Government Departments. This chapter sets out how local government is organised and funded, and outlines how central government influences and often controls what local authorities do. During the 1980s and 1990s, there were disagreements between central government and a significant proportion of local authorities about their role, their functions and their funding. Although little of this was directly relevant to BSE, it is part of the context in which MAFF and DH placed new obligations on local authorities and in which the latter exercised their functions.