Planning and Controlling UK Public Expenditure on a Resource Basis

The UK Government has, from 2003/04, completed the transition from planning and controlling public expenditure in cash to the full implementation of resource budgeting. Accounting had already switched to the resource basis, with effect from 2001/02. The 2002 Spending Review was the first biennial review of future spending levels and priorities to be conducted entirely on a resource basis. This article clarifies what was involved in this transition, paying attention to how it made the 2002 Spending Review different from its predecessors. Changes in both the fiscal framework and the accounting and budgeting systems have been designed to improve decision making at departmental level, and to improve information flows to Parliament and the public.