In England, the region is the highest tier of sub-national division used by central Government. They are defined as first level NUTS regions ("NUTS 1 regions") within the European Union. Between 1994 and 2011, the nine regions, which generally followed the boundaries of "standard regions" established in the 1940s, had an administrative role in the implementation of UK Government policy.

The London region is coterminous with the administrative area of Greater London, which has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. The other eight regions have Local authority leaders' boards, which have limited powers and functions delegated by Central Government departments, with members appointed by local government bodies. These boards replaced indirectly elected Regional Assemblies, which were established in 1994 and undertook a range of co-ordinating, lobbying, scrutiny and strategic planning functions until their abolition.

Each region also had a Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007 to 2010, each also had its own part-time regional minister within the Government. In 2009 the House of Commons established regional Select Committees for each of the regions outside of London. These committees ceased to exist upon the dissolution of Parliament on 12 April 2010 and were not re-established by the newly elected House. Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011.

England ⁱ/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, while the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separate it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.

The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law—the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world—developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's Royal Society laid the foundations of modern experimental science.