UK-IPO is the official government body responsible for granting Intellectual Property (IP) rights in the United Kingdom, including patents, trade marks and copyrights. As an Executive Agency of the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), UK-IPO also promotes the role of IP rights in supporting innovation. It is directed and controlled by corporate governance rules to ensure that its public services are of the highest quality and that it shares good ideas, controls costs and above all delivers what it is supposed to.

To ensure that UK-IPO acts within these rules, Ministers appoint independent members to sit on a Steering Board, whose role is to advise Ministers, through IPO's Director General, on the strategies that must be adopted. The Steering Board has established an Audit Committee, which acts in a non-executive capacity, to assist and advise it on risk, control, governance and associated issues.