UkPublicSpending.co.uk

Added Population Data

2011-12-04T16:10:00.001-08:00

We have added UK population data to ukpublicspending.co.uk as follows:

Population Estimates for 1901-1981. From UK Parliament here.
Population Estimates for 1981-2010. From Office for National Statistics here. Data from Region and Country Profiles - Population and Migration Tables - October 2011
Country Population Projection through 2020. From Office for National Statistics here. Data from Table 1.2 Actual and projected population of the UK by constituent country, 1971-2058
Regional Population Projection through 2020. From Office for National Statistics here. Data from Table 1: England and GORs (Government Office Regions)

Spending Review 2010: Data Updates

2010-10-31T12:18:00.000-07:00

On October 20, 2010, HM Treasury published a Spending Review for UK public spending for fiscal years 2011-12 up through 2015-16. The Spending Review tabulated planned spending for central government departments for each fiscal year.

ukpublicspending.co.uk cannot update its data directly with numbers from the Spending Review because its numbers are not categorized by department. Instead they are categorized by spending function (using the UN COFOG methodology) in the annual Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis (PESA) published by HM Treasury. Usually PESA publishes planned spending by function for the current fiscal year and the next two years. But PESA 2009 and PESA 2010 only detailed planned spending for years up to 2010-11.

At ukpublicspending.co.uk we expect PESA 2011 to include future years as normal, but until then (May or June 2011) we are publishing "guesstimates" of planned future year spending by making projections of the major spending functions based on our interpretation of the Spending Review.

Here is the methodology used to come up with our "guesstimates" using 2011 numbers for ukpublicspending.co.uk and the "plans and forecasts" in Table A.3: Public Sector Current Expenditure and Table A.4: Public Sector Gross Investment in the Spending Review

1. General Public Services. Use 2011 number less Central Government Gross Interest less International Development and project using rate of change in CLG Local Government plus Cabinet Office plus Small and Independent Bodies. For Interest use Central government gross debt interest; for International development use International Development.

2. Defence Use 2011 number and project using rate of change in Defence plus Single Intelligence Account.

3. Public Order and Safety Use 2011 number and project using rate of change in Home Office plus Justice plus Law Officers' Departments.

4. Economic Affairs Use 2011 number less transport and project using rate of change in Business, Innovation and Skills. For transport, use 2011 numbers and project using rate of change in Transport.

5. Environmental Protection Use 2011 number and project using rate of change in Energy and Climate Change and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

6. Housing and Community Amenities Use numbers for CLG Communities.

7. Health Use 2011 number and project using rate of change in NHS (health).

8. Recreation, Culture and Religion Use 2011 number and project using rate of change in Culture, Media and Sport.

9. Education Use 2011 number and project using rate of change in Education.

10. Social Protection For Pensions, use 2011 number for Pensions and project using rate of change in Work and Pensions. For Welfare, use 2011 number for Welfare and project using rate of change in HM Revenue and Customs.

Other Spending Use 2011 number and project using rate of change in Net expenditure transfers to EU.

Total Public Spending. Use Total value directly.

July 7 Update: Country Spending, GDP Update

2010-07-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

Country Spending: Starting today ukpublicspending.co.uk is publishing country spending for the UK. That means you can now view government spending on services at the subfunction level broken out for England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Data starts in 2003 and ends in 2010.

GDP Update: We have updated our GDP numbers for the UK. That includes the actual number for 2009 as reported by measuringworth.com. Also, we have updated the real GDP reported by measuringworth.com from 1692 to the present, using 2005 prices as reference.

July 2 Update: PESA 2010

2010-07-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

On July 1, 2010, HM Treasury published its Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) for 2010. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses PESA's tables of public spending at the "sub-function" level as its major data source for UK public spending.

ukpublicspending.co.uk has now updated its spending tables using data from PESA 2010. The update includes outturn spending data for 2008-09, estimated outturn data for 2000-10, and plans data for 2010-11. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses PESA's Table 6.4 for Central Government expenditure, Table 7.4 for Local Authority expenditure, and Table 8.3 for Public Corporation capital expenditure.

Since HM Treasury does not provide plans estimates for Local Authority spending, ukpublicspending.co.uk provides "guesstimates" instead. This is done by extending the percentage increase in spending between 2008-09 and 2009-10 for each sub-function for the plans year.

Normally, HM Treasury would have supplied, in PESA 2010, plans spending estimates for three out-years, 2010-11, 2011-12, and 2012-13, instead of one. But this year it did not. The Coalition government is conducting a spending review that is expected to result in substantial spending cuts in the out-years. Presumably these cuts will be detailed in PESA 2011.

June 19 Update: PESA 2009

2009-06-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

On June 19, 2009, HM Treasury published its Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) for 2009. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses PESA's tables of public spending at the "sub-function" level as its major data source for UK public spending.

ukpublicspending.co.uk has now updated its spending tables using data from PESA 2009. The update includes outturn spending data for 2007-08, estimated outturn data for 2008-09, and plan data for 2009-10 and 2010-11. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses Table 6.4 for Central Government expenditure, Table 7.4 for Local Authority expenditure, and Table 8.3 for Public Corporation capital expenditure.

Since HM Treasury does not provide plan estimates for Local Authority spending, ukpublicspending.co.uk provides "guesstimates" instead. This is done by extending the percentage increase in spending between 2007-08 and 2008-09 for each sub-function through the plan years.

Normally, HM Treasury would have supplied, in PESA 2009, plan spending estimates for the third out-year, 2011-12. But this year it did not. ukpublicspending.co.uk has not attempted to "guesstimate" spending for 1011-12, since it is expected that the new government taking power by May 2010 will implement significant cuts in public spending.

May 30 Update: Outturn Numbers for 2007-08

2009-05-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

On May 29, 2009, HM Treasury released National Statistics spending data for the UK for the years 2003-04 through 2007-08. UKpublicSpending.co.uk has updated spending for 2008 to include the new data.

UKpublicSpending.co.uk is still waiting on HM Treasury for new estimated outturn data for 2008-09 and plan data for 2009-10 and later years. Presumably this will be published with the final Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2009 report, when published.

April 26: New Home Page

2009-04-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

We’ve created a new home page for ukpublicspending.co.uk.

Why? Because ukpublicspending.co.uk is not just for policy wonks but for ordinary Britons concerned about where their money goes.

The new home page features three charts and a small table about public spending, central and local, in the United Kingdom:

A bar chart of total public spending in the UK centering on the current year
A pie chart showing how central government and local authority spending divide up the spending pie
A pie chart showing the division of the economy into private sector and public sector
A table showing total public spending and debt in the UK over five years

If you like, you can copy the charts and save them on your own computer.

But what if you are conservative and like the old ways at ukpublicspending.co.uk? What if you like a comforting wall of numbers instead of a bunch of charts? No problem. Just click here and you’ll get to the “classic” ukpublicspending.co.uk home page.

On the ukpublicspending.co.uk main menu across the top of every page, we now have the following tabs:

HOME - the new home page
NUMBERS - the “classic” home page
CHARTS - the time-series chart page (also has download feature)
BUDGET - headline charts on the current uk budget
DOWNLOAD - the gateway to data downloading at ukpublicspending.co.uk

If you’d like to comment on this change, please use the comments section below, or the Leave a Comment link in the right column.

Sources for Public Spending Data Series

2009-04-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

The following table specifies the sources of public spending data for each range of years for which ukpublicspending.co.uk provides public spending data.

United Kingdom Central Government and Local Authority Spending
Sources of Spending Data
Year	Central Government Spending	General Government Spending	Local Authority Spending
All years	Gross Domestic Product: Measuring Worth - U.K. GDP
2011	*planned* Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2010 Table 6.4 Central government expenditure on services by sub-function, 2004-05 to 2010-11 and Table 8.3 Public corporations' capital expenditure, 2004-05 to 2010-11		guesstimated by ukpublicspending.co.uk
2010	estimated outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2010 Table 6.4 Central government expenditure on services by sub-function, 2004-05 to 2010-11 and Table 8.3 Public corporations' capital expenditure, 2004-05 to 2010-11	*plans* Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2010 Tables in Chapter 9	estimated outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2010 Table 7.4 Local Authority current and capital expenditure on services in the United Kingdom by function, 2004-05 to 2009-10
2009 thru 2008	outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2010 Table 6.4 Central government expenditure on services by sub-function, 2004-05 to 2010-11 and Table 8.3 Public corporations' capital expenditure, 2004-05 to 2010-11	outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2010 Tables in Chapter 9	outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2010 Table 7.4 Local Authority current and capital expenditure on services in the United Kingdom by function, 2004-05 to 2009-10
2007 thru 2003	outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2008 Table 6.5 Central government expenditure on services by sub-function, 2002-03 to 2010-11 and Table 8.3 Public corporations' capital expenditure, 2002-03 to 2010-11		outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2008 Table 7.6 Local Authority current and capital expenditure on services in the United Kingdom by function, 2002-03 to 2007-08
2003 thru 1999	outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2004 Table 4.5 Central government own expenditure on services by function, 1998-99 to 2005-06 and Table 7.3 Public corporationsâ€™ capital expenditure 1998-99 to 2005-06		outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2004 Table 6.6 - Local authority current and capital expenditure in the United Kingdom by function, 1998-99 to 2003-04
1998 thru 1995	outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2001 Table 5.2 Central government own expenditure by function, 1994-95 to 2001-02 and Table 7.3 Capital Expenditure of Public Corporations, 1994-95 to 2001-02		outturn Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2001 Table 6.2 Local authority current and capital expenditure in the United Kingdom by department, 1994-95 to 1999-2000
1994 thru 1983		outturn Public Expenditure - Statistical Analyses 1998-99 and Table 3.2 General government expenditure by function, 1982-83 to 1997-98
1982 thru 1972		outturn Central Statistical Office, National Income and Expenditure 1983 Table 9.4 Analysis of Total Expenditure
1971 thru 1961		outturn Central Statistical Office, National Income and Expenditure 1972 Table 49 Analysis of Public Expenditure 1961-1971
1960 thru 1951		outturn Central Statistical Office, National Income and Expenditure 1962 Table 44 Analysis of Expenditure, Combined Public Authorities Table 43 Combined capital and current account (Combined Public Authorities) Table 35 Analysis of capital accounts (Public Corporations) and Central Statistical Office, National Income and Expenditure 1956 Table 36 Analysis of capital accounts (Public Corporations)
1950 thru 1692	outturn B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics		outturn B.R. Mitchell, British Historical Statistics

How We Got the Spending Data

2009-04-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

The tables of government spending on this site aggregate all public spending in the United Kingdom by fiscal year organized by government function.

Most of the recent data is actual public spending as reported by HM Treasury in its Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA). But the PESA numbers only extend back to the early 1990s. Records of public spending are available from the annual Blue Book, National Income and Expenditure. Prior to 1950 the spending numbers have been acquired from The Growth of Public Expenditure in the United Kingdom by Alan T. Peacock and Jack Wiseman. Data has been interpolated for the years not covered by the data sources. In addition, we have included budgeted and estimated spending as well. We have used color and italics to tell you the source of each item of spending.

Here is the key:

Actual public spending “outturn” is shown in blue text
Interpolated data filling in for missing years in the source records
is shown in blue italic text
Estimated outturn spending is shown in normal text
Planned spending is shown in italic text
“Guesstimated” spending, i.e. future local authority spending projected by ukpublicspending.co.uk, is shown in red italic text

You can use controls on the table to change the year or to drill down to view more detailed spending information.

Guesstimated Spending

HM Treasury provides estimated outturn data for the current year. It also provides plan data for the following three years.

But the HM Treasury data on local authority spending is historical data only. It does not include any information on local authority plans.

So at ukpublicspending.co.uk we have massaged the recent historical data to come up with a “guesstimate” of future local authority spending.

The method used is project the change in spending for the last years of outturn data and estimate the percentage change in spending that this represents, limiting the percentage change to plus 20 percent and zero. We then apply that percentage for each year after the last year in the HM Treasury data.

Interpolated Spending

Prior to 1950 there are many missing years in the record, including a complete absence of spending at the function level for World War I and II. For the missing years we have interpolated data from the information given in the published years. For the war years we have tried to reconstruct the spending from the continuous record of overall spending and from the spending levels immediately before and after the war year gaps.

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2009-04-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

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2009-04-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

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2009-04-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

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