Government Operations committee  Essentially, in the U.K. we divide budgets into two halves, broadly. We have what we call departmental expenditure limits, which are set at the time of a spending review. These are multi-year budgets that cover the department's programs, over which we would expect them to have so

Government Operations committee  I think there has been a challenging learning curve over a very long period of time. I suppose you could almost see with that transition the development of the finance function within government and the agenda of professionalization we've had in the U.K. over quite a long period

Government Operations committee  I think that tax changes for the most part would be done through the finance bill rather than through the Supply and Appropriation Act. The finance bill has a series of debates and scrutiny around it, almost, one might say, more so than the appropriation act. As for the extent

Government Operations committee  I would probably go back to the point that I made earlier, which is about trying to meet the different needs of different users, both in terms of financial reports and also in terms of the presentation of budgetary proposals or in the estimates, or whatever. Different users have

Government Operations committee  There is something to be said for that, and I think there have been relatively recent reforms that have tried to assist Parliament in undertaking financial scrutiny, for example, by creating a financial scrutiny unit that can provide assistance to parliamentarians. However, to a

Government Operations committee  Under the current system, Parliament votes on a number of control totals in the estimates, and those control totals are largely aligned with budgetary controlled totals that the Treasury sets. There is a total for capital expenditure and for resource expenditure. There is a subd

Government Operations committee  I think the process in the U.K. that makes the new proposals most transparent is actually through the process around the budget itself, and also through the role of the independent fiscal forecast institution called the Office for Budget Responsibility. What essentially happens

Government Operations committee  It's Michael Sunderland again. We first moved to accruals for both resource accounting and for the supply estimates in about 2001-02; however, I suppose the big alignment of both Treasury budget totals and parliamentary totals was implemented in 2011-12, and we've been running o

Government Operations committee  There were some significant challenges. There were some on the technical side around accounting frameworks. The budgets that the Treasury set tried to underpin the fiscal framework. Our fiscal measures for fiscal policy are typically based on what we call the national accounts, w

Government Operations committee  I would say yes. I think as far as reforms go... I don't have any numbers, but it was not a hugely costly exercise.

Government Operations committee  Sorry; can you repeat the question?

Government Operations committee  It does. There's what you might call the central coordination role around government plans and delivery, and it has been done in different ways by different governments. It typically is driven by something out of the Cabinet Office, which is another core central department. We ha

Government Operations committee  I think, from a financial management perspective, we would want departments' plans to be as rigorous as possible, and we would hope not to change those on too regular a basis. Having only two rounds, with one at a further point in the year when an expenditure total could be chan

Government Operations committee  In the U.K. the Treasury is both the finance ministry and the economic ministry. I think we see benefits in having strong coordination and having those functions that you refer to within the Treasury. If you are exposed to particular challenges or trade-offs, those are addressed

Government Operations committee  If I separate out the financial aspect versus the broader performance aspect in terms of financial performance within the financial statements, there is a particular statement that goes beyond what commercial accounts would produce. It's called the statement of parliamentary supp