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Public Expenditure Controls

Asked by Mr Richard HoldenConservativeCabinet OfficeTabled Answered 2 April 2025UIN 41113

The question

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether information about each Department's (a) spending control data and (b) exemptions is held centrally.

Answered by Georgia Gould

A Prime-Ministerial directive, issued in 2010, mandated all departments to publish details of all spend approvals from the Advertising, Marketing and Communications, Commercial, Contingent Labour, Digital and Technology, and National Property controls on a quarterly basis. The Cabinet Office’s publications are at this link https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cabinet-office-spend-data .

HMT Treasury delegates authority to departments to enter into commitments and spend within predefined limits without specific prior approval. Agreements of any exemptions a body holds from the Spend Controls should be recorded in the department’s delegation letter and in the Framework Document, or similar relationship-defining document, between the body and its sponsor department.

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