UK Spending Review to be published on 20 Oct 2010

[John Short]

Should be interesting even to non taxpayers - any methodological developments expected?

Background paper http://www.parliament.uk/briefingpapers/commons/lib/research/briefings/snep-05674.pdf

[John Short]

Here it is
http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2010_completereport.pdf
http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2010_equalities.pdf
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/spend_sr2010_datasources.htm
http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2010_policycostings.pdf

[petagny]

Interesting - a medium-term expenditure framework without an accompanying macro-fiscal framework!

No doubt it all adds up and private sector investors and importers of British goods and services will come rushing in to replace this massive reduction in domestic demand - as interest rates fall, making borrowing cheaper and the exchange rate more competitive. But hang on a minute - what's the base rate just now and what's the value of sterling?!

Perhaps we don't need to see the macroeconomic underpinnings as the finance minister clearly knows what he's doing: “We are going to ensure, like every solvent household in the country, that what we buy we can afford; that the bills we incur we have the income to meet.” Or does he? Even one of Mrs Thatcher's staunchest supporters has his doubts: 'Either you accept the chancellor’s analogy or you do not. I do not. Of course the deficit matters. But it should be a policy variable rather than targeted to meet a dim accountant’s idea of balance.' (see Samuel Brittan in today's FT).

[John Short]

To be fair I suppose it is in here
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/junebudget_complete.pdf
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/junebudget_nao_assumptions.pdf
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/junebudget_supplementary_material.pdf

[John Short]

Department business plans to be found at
http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/topstorynews/2010/11/business-plans-published-2-56688,
These outline accountable targets and transparency that set out in detail the work of Government for the next four years. 
The plans include data such as financial information, Structural Reform Plans and departmental priorities.

To quote the Prime Minister

“Instead of bureaucratic accountability to the government machine, these Business Plans bring in a new system of democratic accountability – accountability to the people. So reform will be driven not by the short-term political calculations of the government, but by the consistent, long-term pressure of what people want and choose in their public services – and that is the horizon shift we need.

“But more importantly the Business Plans will bring about a power shift by changing what government does. For a long time, government’s default position has been to solve problems by hoarding more power to the centre – passing laws, creating regulations, setting up taskforces. The result is that Britain is now one of the most centralised countries in the developed world.

“We will be the first government in a generation to leave office with much less power in Whitehall than we started with. We are going to take power from government and hand it to people, families and communities – and how we will do that is set out right here in these Business Plans.”

It will be interesting to see the monitoring of these business plan and their targets

[Napodano]

By reading the Business Plan of the Department of Education (attached below) I have got the impressions that

• The UK Budget has become activity-based

• The Budget does no longer present targets for the spending period; the indicators of choice are there with a reference to the publication frequency only. Will they present only actual data?

If this is the case we should remind the UK Treasury that “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” (from Alice in Wonderland, Jim Caroll)
Any clarification from an experienced UK PFM Boarder?