The Northern Ireland Executive published its expenditure plans for 2005-2008, as well as details of public service agreements. The report provided an overview of the Executive s long-term vision and priorities for public services in Northern Ireland. The Executive also published for consultation its public services investment strategy for the period 2005-2015.
Source: Priorities and Budget: 2005-2008, Northern Ireland Executive (028 9052 0500) | The Investment Strategy for Northern Ireland 2005 2015, Northern Ireland Executive | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 20 December 2004, columns 160-164WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Expenditure plans (pdf) | Hansard | NIE press release (1) | NIE press release (2) | ECNI press release (Word file) | NICVA press release | NICCY press release
Date: 2004-Dec
Estimates of the amount of public money spent in Scotland compared to the amount raised were published. In 2002-03, the total expenditure for Scotland was estimated at 40.9 billion (9.8 per cent of the United Kingdom total). Total receipts in Scotland, excluding North Sea oil revenues, were estimated at 31.6 billion (8.1 per cent of total UK receipts).
Source: Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland 2002-2003, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report | SE press release
Date: 2004-Dec
The final budget of the National Assembly for Wales for 2005-06 to 2007-08 was published. It included a 5 per cent increase in the deprivation grant aimed at helping local authorities serving deprived communities.
Source: National Assembly for Wales' Budget 2005-2006 to 2007-2008, Welsh Assembly Government (029 2082 5111)
Links: Report (pdf) | Explanatory note (pdf) | WAG press release
Date: 2004-Nov
A report examined trends in Scottish Executive/Scottish Office expenditure between 1996-97 and 2005-06.
Source: The Scottish Executive's Expenditure: Comparative trends 1996-97 - 2005-06, Scottish Executive (0131 556 8400)
Links: Report
Date: 2004-Oct
The Scottish Executive presented its spending plans for the three years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 to the Scottish Parliament. Investment in capital infrastructure would increase by almost 40 per cent, to more than 3 billion; there would be a 30 per cent increase in spending in further and higher education by 2007-08; the transport budget would increase by an average of 14 per cent per annum; and there would be increased health spending of 8.5 per cent per annum. But local government leaders described the budget as 'very disappointing'.
Source: Building a Better Scotland: Spending proposals 2005-2008 - Enterprise, opportunity, fairness, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's (0131 622 8283) | Press release 30 September 2004, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (0131 474 9200)
Links: Report (pdf) | Report | SE press release | COSLA press release
Date: 2004-Sep
An article said that 162,000 additional jobs were created in the public sector in the year to June 2003, considerably more than the 89,000 for the previous year. Employment in the public sector was 10 per cent higher than in 1998, due to the creation of an additional 509,000 jobs.
Source: Ole Black, Rhys Herbert and Ian Richardson, 'Jobs in the public sector, mid-2003', Economic Trends, July 2004, Office for National Statistics, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Article (pdf)
Date: 2004-Jul
The 2004 Spending Review set new government spending plans for 2006-07 and 2007-08 (and confirmed spending plans previously set for 2005-06). Revised public service agreements were published for individual government departments for the period 2005-2008.
Source: Stability, Security and Opportunity for All: Investing for Britain s long-term future - 2004 Spending Review/New public spending plans 2005-2008, Cm 6237, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522) | 2004 Spending Review: Public Service Agreements 2005-2008, Cm 6238, HM Treasury, TSO | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 12 July 2004, columns 1129-1155, TSO
Links: Spending Review report (pdf links) | PSAs (pdf) | PSAs (pdf links) | Hansard | Press releases index | CBI press release | TUC press release | Links to Guardian reports
Date: 2004-Jul
A think-tank report said that the relatively rapid pay growth seen in the public sector in the previous few years was largely a catch-up , following a period of pay restraint in the 1990s, and was likely to end shortly. The growth in public sector jobs since 1997 had been primarily in providing frontline education and health services, and not administrative staff.
Source: Richard Brooks, Pay and the Public Service Workforce, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books (0845 458 9911)
Links: Report (pdf) | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jul
A report set out the conclusions of a review of public sector efficiency. It identified the scope for further efficiencies within the public sector's 'back office' - procurement, transaction service and policy-making functions. It also identified opportunities for increasing the productive time of professionals working in schools, hospitals and other frontline public services, and made a series of cross-cutting recommendations to further embed efficiency across the public sector. The government announced (in the Spending Review 2004) plans to cut 80,000 Whitehall civil servants over four years. One think tank questioned whether reductions on such a scale were achievable. Another said they were deliverable, but would require improvements in public service procurement capacity and careful handling of industrial relations issues. A civil service union expressed serious concern at both the scale of the cuts and also their impact on public services. But voluntary sector leaders said the cuts were an opportunity for the not-for-profit sector: there were 'vast stretches of government delivery' which it could run better.
Source: Peter Gershon, Releasing Resources for the Frontline: Independent review of public sector efficiency, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) | Stability, Security and Opportunity for All: Investing for Britain s long-term future - 2004 Spending Review/New public spending plans 2005-2008, Cm 6237, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 12 July 2004, Institute for Fiscal Studies (020 7291 4800) | David Coats, Efficiency, Efficiency, Efficiency: The Gershon Review - Public service efficiency and the management of change, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700) | Press release 12 July 2004, Public and Commercial Services Union (020 924 2727) | Press release 13 July 2004, Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (0845 345 8481)
Links: Gershon report (pdf) | Spending Review report (pdf links) | IFS press release (pdf) | Coats report (pdf) | PCS press release | ACEVO press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jul
The 2004 edition of the annual publication 'Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses' was published - a compendium of statistical data on public expenditure, covering both outturns and spending plans.
Source: Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2004, Cm 6201, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf links) | HMT press release
Date: 2004-Apr
A think-tank report reviewed the 'tough choices' the government would have to make in the 2004 Spending Review. If significant increases in taxation were ruled out almost certainly the case ahead of the general election likely in 2005 then so were further significant increases in public spending. Taxation and user charges, both paid for by individuals, were the only two options for funding public services: but it was not clear that user charges were more acceptable to individuals than taxation. User charges in areas such as transport would make no significant contribution during the period covered by the spending review, though they should make a bigger contribution over the long run. The government's review of efficiency savings was being used to avoid the issue of setting spending priorities. Spending on defence, universities, childcare, railways and the regions were predicted to be the main victims, and the government might need to drastically reduce spending growth in sensitive areas such as crime and education.
Source: Peter Robinson, Tough Choices: The 2004 Spending Review, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100)
Links: Report (pdf) | IPPR press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Mar
A think-tank pamphlet said that public spending and taxation had increased 'dramatically' under the Labour government. Despite higher taxes, the public finances were deteriorating and public sector borrowing was increasing rapidly. Further tax increases were inevitable if the government were to keep to its 'golden rule' of nil net public borrowing (excluding borrowing for investment) over the economic cycle.
Source: Ruth Lea, The Price of the Profligate Chancellor: Higher taxes to come, Centre for Policy Studies (020 7222 4488)
Links: Pamphlet (pdf)
Date: 2004-Mar
At the end of 2003 public sector net debt was equivalent to 33.1 per cent of gross domestic product, compared to 31.4 per cent a year earlier.
Source: Public Sector Accounts: 4th quarter 2003, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs deplored the erosion of the principle of 'additionality', whereby National Lottery resources were not supposed to be used to replace government spending.
Source: Reform of the National Lottery, Fifth Report (Session 2003-04), HC 196, House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Date: 2004-Mar
Provisional estimates showed that in 2003 general government net borrowing was 33.9 billion (3.1 per cent of gross domestic product), compared with net borrowing of 15.2 billion (1.5 per cent) in 2002. Net borrowing for 2003 exceeded 3 per cent, the 'reference value' in the Maastricht Treaty protocol for an 'excessive' deficit, for the first time since 1996.
Source: Government Deficit and Debt under the Maastricht Treaty, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Feb
A think-tank report examined the government's options for the 2004 Budget, covering the public finances, possible ways to raise revenue, company taxation, the taxation of housing and the delivery of public services. It warned of a growing shortfall in revenue to finance spending plans.
Source: Robert Chote, Carl Emmerson and Zo Oldfield (eds.), The IFS Green Budget: January 2004, Institute for Fiscal Studies (020 7291 4800)
Links: Report (pdf) | Report | IFS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jan
At the end of December 2003 public sector net debt outstanding was 374.9 billion, equivalent to 33.3 per cent of gross domestic product (up from 31.4 per cent a year earlier).
Source: Public Sector Finances: December 2003, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034) and HM Treasury
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Jan
The Northern Ireland Executive announced its spending plans for the period 2004-2006. Total spending on services would rise by nearly 14 per cent over the period, with an increase of 7.9 per cent in 2004-05 and 5.3 per cent in 2005-06, bringing the total to over 8 billion. Capital investment would rise by around 42 per cent, from 750 million in 2003-04 to over 1 billion in 2005-06.
Source: Northern Ireland Priorities and Budget 2004-06, Northern Ireland Executive (028 9052 0500) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 13 January 2004, columns 23-27WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | Hansard | NIE press release
Date: 2004-Jan
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that heavy investment in public services in the United Kingdom was leading to waste and inefficiency. It urged the government to slow the acceleration in spending on the public sector, in order to prevent the build-up of inflationary pressures and to ensure extra money was matched by reform.
Source: Economic Survey of the United Kingdom, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (+33 1 4524 8200)
Links: Brief (pdf) | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jan