Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee
Published: 2010-11-26
Total Pages: 64
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This report provides cross-party commentary on the Government's Spending Review 2010 (Cm. 7942, ISBN 9780101794220), which will shape public policy for the coming Parliament. Scrutiny of the Government's consolidation reform plans will be one of the Committee's key tasks over the entire course of the Parliament, and it expects to conduct regular enquiries into the Government's fiscal and expenditure planning, and the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecasts. The use of the Public Expenditure Committee, and a wide range of systems of meetings and more select groups, resulted in a collective decision-making process. The Report examines some of the key spending decisions. It concludes that although ring-fencing might fulfil electoral promises, it could also lead to allocative problems across government as a whole, and reduce scrutiny of the efficiency of ring-fenced departments. The Committee examines the allocation of the defence budget at some length. The Committee was particularly concerned by the aircraft carrier contract with BAE, both in itself and, as a symptom of wider difficulties in controlling the defence budget. The Treasury's willingness to increase its distributional analysis is welcomed. The Committee analyses the differences between the Treasury work and that done by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, and calls on the Treasury to consider whether it can adopt some of the IFS's proposals. It also recommends that the calculation underpinning the analysis should be published, to provide transparency and encourage debate. The report notes the difference between "progressive", a technical economic term, and "fair".