The MOD has many elements
The Ministry of Defence is a very large, diverse organisation encompassing some 90,000 civilians and 200,000 service personnel stationed right around the globe.

The MOD is often associated just with the Navy, Army, RAF and civilian staff at the central London headquarters. In reality however, there are many other parts to the organisation. For example, the Met Office in Exeter, and the Hydrographic Office in Taunton are both Trading Funds of the MOD. We have over 30 agencies ranging from the British Forces Post Office, the Defence Analytical Services Agency and the Ship Support Agency, to the Defence Procurement Agency which alone has over 4,000 staff.

A wide range of Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) are also associated with the MOD and these operate either in an executive or an advisory capacity. Executive NDPBs include the National Army Museum, the Royal Naval Museum and the Oil and Pipelines Agency, while the advisory NDPBs range from the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to the Armed Forces Pay Review Body and the National Employers' Advisory Board.

Follow the links for a more detailed description of the organisation and management of the MOD, a full list of our Trading Funds, Agencies and NDPBs.

It follows that a diverse range of activities are carried out by these various elements, and that the information they produce is also enormously varied. However, the Publication Scheme has been structured so that you do not need to know who has responsibility for a particular subject to find the information published about it. You will be able to see what is available either by selecting one of the categories of activity in which we are involved or by choosing an area of the organisation. You will also be able to specify a type of information (such as speeches) and to search by entering keywords.