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Levels of power · Level 6 of 10

National government

Sovereign parliaments, presidents, prime ministers, cabinets, supreme courts, central banks and national regulators. In the UK that is Parliament, the government and its departments, the courts and the Bank of England: they set taxes, pass laws and run the biggest budgets.

What this level decides

Key figures

FigureValueSource
Members of the House of Commons (Current members, read 2026-10-23)650UK Parliament Members API, read 23 October 2026
Members of the House of Lords (Read 2026-10-23)816 listed as current membersUK Parliament Members API, read 23 October 2026
UK ministerial departments (Read 2026-10-23)23GOV.UK, read 23 October 2026
UK non-ministerial departments (Read 2026-10-23)20GOV.UK, read 23 October 2026
Agencies and other public bodies listed on GOV.UK (Read 2026-10-23)419GOV.UK, read 23 October 2026
UK Total Managed Expenditure (2025-26 outturn; 2026-27 plan)£1,360.1 billion outturn; £1,419.3 billion plannedHM Treasury, read 23 October 2026
Total Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) (2025-26 outturn)£639.8 billion (resource £496.7 billion, capital £127.5 billion)HM Treasury, read 23 October 2026
Health and Social Care resource DEL, the largest departmental group (2025-26 outturn)£204.1 billionHM Treasury, read 23 October 2026
Local government's share of all government spending (2024-25)Just under a fifthMinistry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), read 23 October 2026
Open government consultations listed on GOV.UK (Read 2026-10-23)54GOV.UK, read 23 October 2026

How it works

The UK Parliament has two houses. The Members API lists 650 current Members of the House of Commons, each representing a constituency, and 816 current Members of the House of Lords. The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023 sets out the names and composition of constituencies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Parliament is the body that passes legislation. Both counts come from Parliament's own open data service, which lists members currently sitting, and the totals can change when members are elected, appointed or retire.

Government is organised into departments. GOV.UK lists 23 ministerial departments, 20 non-ministerial departments and 419 agencies and other public bodies. Non-ministerial departments are listed separately from ministerial ones. Departmental responsibilities change over time: HM Treasury's 2026 spending statistics record transfers of apprenticeships and skills from Education to Work and Pensions in September 2025, and of fire functions from the Home Office to MHCLG in April 2025. The department list is therefore a snapshot rather than a fixed structure.

HM Treasury's PESA 2026 puts UK Total Managed Expenditure at £1,360.1 billion in 2025-26, with £1,419.3 billion planned for 2026-27. Of the 2025-26 outturn, Total DEL was £639.8 billion, made up of £496.7 billion resource and £127.5 billion capital. Health and Social Care was the largest departmental group, at £204.1 billion of resource DEL, followed by Education at £90.4 billion. The rest of TME is Annually Managed Expenditure, which includes social security.

Money also flows to other levels. PESA 2026 shows resource budgets for the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive, and MHCLG says local government expenditure accounts for just under a fifth of all government spending. Citizens can take part by petition: GOV.UK says a petition receives a government response at 10,000 signatures and is considered for debate in Parliament at 100,000 signatures.

How to have a say

  1. Create or sign a petition: 10,000 signatures get a government response, 100,000 are considered for debate
  2. Respond to open government consultations (54 open when read)
  3. Make a Freedom of Information request to a government department
  4. Register to vote so you can vote in general elections and by-elections
  5. Read how general elections and other UK elections work, and who can vote
  6. Find the department or public body responsible for an issue from the GOV.UK organisations list

The records you can check

Official registers and data

In the UK

National leaders around the world

The head of state and head of government of 192 UN member states, as listed by the UN Protocol and Liaison Service on 15 October 2026: see the full list of world leaders.

Every national government

Official statistics, sources and leaders for all 193 UN member states: browse the world.

Up and down the ladder

Above: Regional blocs and supranational bodies. Below: Devolved and state governments.

Common questions

What does national government decide?

Taxes, public spending and borrowing; Laws, passed by Parliament; Interest rates (the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee); Regulation of markets, utilities and public services.

Which records show what national government do?

How every MP voted, division by division; The Register of Members' Financial Interests and MPs' business costs; Party donations and loans (Electoral Commission); Ministers' meetings, gifts and hospitality returns, and the lobbying register.

How many MPs and peers are there?

The UK Parliament Members API listed 650 current Members of the House of Commons and 816 current Members of the House of Lords when read on 23 October 2026. The Lords has no fixed number set in law, so the count changes with appointments, retirements and deaths. Check the live Parliament listings for the day you need.

How many government departments are there in the UK?

GOV.UK's organisations list shows 23 ministerial departments and 20 non-ministerial departments. It also lists 419 agencies and other public bodies and 3 devolved governments. HM Treasury's spending statistics note that responsibilities move between departments over time, for example fire functions from the Home Office to MHCLG on 1 April 2025, so totals change when functions are reorganised.

How much does the UK government spend?

HM Treasury's PESA 2026 gives UK Total Managed Expenditure of £1,360.1 billion for 2025-26 and plans of £1,419.3 billion for 2026-27. Total Departmental Expenditure Limits were £639.8 billion in 2025-26. Total Managed Expenditure also includes Annually Managed Expenditure, which covers items such as social security.

How much money do Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland get?

PESA 2026 gives 2025-26 resource budgets of £25,650 million for the Scottish Government (including Block Grant Adjustments), £18,303 million for the Welsh Government and £16,885 million for the Northern Ireland Executive. For 2026-27 the planned figures are £27,354 million, £18,952 million and £16,701 million.

How do I start a petition to Parliament?

GOV.UK says you can create or sign a petition asking for a change to the law or to government policy. After 10,000 signatures a petition gets a response from the government, and after 100,000 signatures it is considered for debate in Parliament. Scotland and Wales have separate petition systems.

How many members does the US House of Representatives have?

The House of Representatives site says the number of voting representatives is fixed by law at no more than 435, proportionally representing the population of the 50 states. USAGov also gives 435 members. The Senate is the other chamber of Congress. The comparison shows how legislatures of different countries are sized.

Sources