United Kingdom budget

The United Kingdom budget is an annual budget set by HM Treasury for the revenues to be gathered by HM Revenue and Customs and the expenditures of the public sector, in compliance with government policy.[1]

Budgets are usually set once every year and are announced in the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The last budget was on Wednesday 16th March 2016.

Budget process

The UK fiscal year — termed the "financial year", ends on 31 March of the following calendar year. Thus, the UK budget for financial year 2011 would cover the period from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 and is often referred to as 2011–12.

The budget is usually released in March, less than one month before the beginning of the new fiscal year. Parliament is not expected to take action on a budget for the fiscal year until the summer, several months after the start of the fiscal year. For that reason, Parliament typically passes a "Vote on Account" in early spring that provides continuity of funding into the new fiscal year, up until the point that the new budget is enacted. The spending authorized in the Vote on Account is normally 45% of the amounts already authorized in the current fiscal year, taking into account the Main Estimates and any revised or Supplementary Estimates already approved by Parliament.[2] Legislative action on the proposed budget generally aligns with the executive's original budget request, since the Prime Minister's cabinet tends to exert significant control over Parliament (the Prime Minister must have a majority in the House of Commons to retain power).

Governmental departments submit their funding requests — called "Main Supply Estimates" – to HM Treasury. The government then releases this data in a large consolidated document titled "Central Government Supply Estimates (Budget Year-Following Year): Main Supply Estimates" [3]

The government reserves the right to submit "Supplementary Estimates" in the spring and winter of a given fiscal year to update its agencies' spending totals for the current financial year and report any governmental re-organizations. When an agency submits a Supplementary Estimate, it is customary to also submit an "Estimate Memorandum" to the agency's relevant oversight committee in Parliament describing and justifying the changes. This condenses two functions – reporting supplemental spending requests and agency re-organizations.

List of budgets

See also

References

  1. ↑ "[ARCHIVED CONTENT] PESA 2007". Hm-treasury.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 10 September 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
  2. ↑ "Central Government Supply Estimates 2012–13; Vote on Account, HC 1756" (PDF). February 2012. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 February 2014.
  3. ↑ "Central Government Supply Estimates (2011–12): Main Supply Estimates" (PDF). 26 April 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 February 2014.
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