Merging NHS England, Monitor and NHS Trust Development Authority
Section 1H of the NHS Act 2006, as inserted by Part 1 of the 2012 Act, established a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) called the National Health Service Commissioning Board. The NHS Commissioning Board was given broad duties, in conjunction with the Secretary of State, to promote a comprehensive health service and to arrange and secure the provision of services for the purposes of the health service. The NHS Commissioning Board is accountable to the Secretary of State and operated under the name NHS England.
	Monitor was established in 2004 by the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 as an executive NDPB of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). It was responsible for regulating NHS Foundation Trusts and in 2012, section 61 of the 2012 Act changed its name to Monitor. Part 3 of the 2012 Act conferred additional functions on Monitor, establishing it as the "sector regulator" for healthcare. Monitor’s overriding duty was to protect and promote the interests of patients by promoting economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of healthcare, while maintaining or improving quality.
	The NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) was a Special Health Authority established by the Secretary of State by order under section 28 of the NHS Act 2006 (see the National Health Service Trust Development Authority (Establishment and Constitution) Order 2012 (SI 2012/901)). The TDA was established to exercise such functions as the Secretary of State may direct in connection with the management of the performance and development of English NHS trusts and other functions as directed by the Secretary of State. The detailed functions of the TDA (which, apart from the patient safety function, are all Secretary of State functions) are set out in directions made by the Secretary of State under section 8 of the NHS Act 2006.
	In 2016, the TDA was directed to work collaboratively with Monitor under a single leadership and operating model to ensure improvement in the quality of care, patient safety and financial sustainability across the health service. As such, Monitor and the TDA came together to operate as a single organisation known as NHS Improvement. NHS Improvement is not itself a statutory body and has no distinct functions of its own.
	Prior to the Act, NHS England and NHS Improvement had already been working closely together with a view to acting as a single organisation with a single operating model, with an aligned board and committee arrangements and joint senior executive appointments (the Joint Working Programme). There were limits on the extent to which NHS England and NHS Improvement could collaborate under that statutory framework. For instance, NHS England and NHS Improvement were assigned distinctive and non-shareable functions, and required separate boards including separate chairs, CEOs and non-executive directors for the two organisations.
	The Act enables the functions of the previous three national statutory bodies responsible for the NHS - the NHS Commissioning Board, Monitor and the TDA ––– to be moved into a single body. The formation of the new NHS England will provide national leadership which speaks with one voice to providers, commissioners and local health systems; will remove potential duplication; and use collective resources more efficiently and effectively to support local health systems and ultimately make effective use of public money.
	The Act transfers the functions of Monitor and the TDA to NHS England and abolishes Monitor and the TDA.