Written evidence to the Scrutiny of the Government's Supply Estimates. Parliament's Procedure Committee.

Abstract

I welcome this opportunity to submit written evidence to the Procedure Committee’s inquiry on Scrutiny of the Government’s Supply Estimates. This reply draws on my recent published academic work on budgeting and governance in public services and senior level personal experience of both central government and local government accounting practices. My response takes account of that there has already been written evidence submitted to this inquiry on comparative contexts (Wehner), international best practice (OECD) and pragmatic improvements (Heald). I do not aim to repeat these messages per se, and instead focus more specifically on one main theme and derive a number of points accordingly.