Accredited official statistics

Public spending statistics: July 2024

Updated 30 August 2024

© Crown copyright 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-spending-statistics-release-july-2024/public-spending-statistics-july-2024

1. Introduction

This National Statistics release is intended to provide comprehensive information on public spending. Data are arranged thematically by section. Each section contains overview commentary on the statistics being released, statistical tables, and further background information. The key data being updated in this release are for the years 2019-20 to 2023-24. This release contains the first estimate of 2023-24 outturn. All data in this release are National Statistics and are on an outturn basis. Where major revisions to the data for past years have been made we refer to them in the text accompanying the tables. Further background detail is found in the accompanying background material published alongside this release. HM Treasury Public Spending Statistics provide a range of information about public spending. Further detailed explanations are provided in the PSS guidance document. This information can be found on the main release page.

National Statistics are accredited official statistics[footnote 1]. These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in November 2011. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. For further information, please see the explanation web page on the OSR website.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing [email protected] or via the OSR website.

  • The PESA command paper is an annual release, containing plans data for the Spending Review period, alongside the data contained in this release.
  • The quarterly public spending statistics releases update the key series found in this release.
  • HM Treasury published a Covid Cost Tracker on gov.uk as accredited official statistics. This was previously published by the NAO. It brings together data from across the UK government. and provide estimates of the cost of measures announced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (where this information is publicly available or has been provided to HM Treasury by government departments).
  • Changes to this release have been made in response to requests from the United Kingdom Statistics Authority and feedback received from users. We welcome further user feedback at [email protected]

1.2 What’s new

  • As announced at Spring Budget 2024, business rates reliefs have been reclassified from DEL to AME, due to volatility and uncertainty in cost estimates. This affects the figures for MHCLG Local Government, with £5.1 billion reclassified in 2024-25. The reclassification has been backdated across all outturn years.
  • Not all departments had produced their Annual Report and Accounts for 2023-24 as at publication of PESA 2024. Outturn data may therefore be subject to revisions. The public spending statistics (PSS) release, published on a quarterly basis, will reflect any later revisions made by departments to their 2023-24 outturn.
  • Following the 2024 General Election, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has been renamed the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

2. Departmental budgets

The tables for departmental budgets in chapter 1 bring together information on public expenditure within the current budgeting and control framework. This comprises departmental budgets, including all control totals, as well as reconciling from the budgetary framework to the fiscal aggregates in the National Accounts.

DEL expenditure in real terms (billions)

Expenditure 2022-23 2023-24
Resource DEL 477.9 479.8
Depreciation 9.4 27.6
Capital DEL 106.6 106.8
Total DEL 575.1 558.9

Total DEL is given by resource DEL excluding depreciation plus capital DEL.

2.1 Departmental expenditure limits (DEL)

  • Total resource DEL was £479.8 billion in 2023-24, an increase of 0.4 per cent in real terms on the previous year.
  • Total resource DEL (RDEL) excluding depreciation was £452.2 billion in 2023-24, a decrease of 3.5 per cent in real terms on the previous year.
  • Depreciation in resource DEL was £27.6 billion in 2023-24, an increase of 194.7 per cent in real terms on 2022-23.
  • Total capital DEL was £106.8 billion in 2023-24, an increase of 0.2 per cent in real terms on the previous year.
  • Total DEL in real terms decreased by 2 .8 per cent in 2023-24 from £575.1 billion in 2022-23 to £558.9 billion. The largest decrease in DEL spending in real terms in 2023-24 was for Energy Security and Net Zero which was down by £14.2 billion to £6.4 billion. This decrease reflects the higher expenditure related to Cost of Living measures in 2022-23.

2.2 Total Departmental Expenditure Limits, 2023-24 (£millions)

For the full table, including years from 2019-20 onward, please refer to Table 1.10 in the accompanying Chapter 1 tables file.

Departmental Group Total DEL
Health and Social Care 188,469
Education 87,943
Home Office 20,311
Justice 11,894
Law Officers’ Departments 875
Defence 53,903
Single Intelligence Account 4,183
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office 11,113
MHCLG - Local Government 9,580
MHCLG - Housing and Communities 10,102
Culture, Media and Sport 2,068
Science, Innovation and Technology 12,655
Transport 30,038
Energy Security and Net Zero 6,425
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 6,796
Business and Trade 2,612
Work and Pensions 9,031
HM Revenue and Customs 6,694
HM Treasury 357
Cabinet Office 1,340
Scotland 43,413
Wales 19,546
Northern Ireland 16,912
Small and Independent Bodies 2,670

2.3 Annually Managed Expenditure (AME)

  • Resource departmental AME increased by £44.1 billion to £419.9 billion in real terms in 2023-24. This is largely due to higher expenditure on provisions relating to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
  • Capital departmental AME increased by £39.9 billion to £76.3 billion in real terms in 2023-24.

Departmental AME expenditure in real terms (billions)

Expenditure 2022-23 2023-24
Resource departmental AME 375.7 419.9
Capital departmental AME 36.4 76.3
Total departmental AME 412.1 496.2

3. Economic analysis of budgets

The tables in chapter 2 of Public Spending Statistics present an analysis by economic category of the budgeting aggregates shown in chapter 1. A description of the economic categories referred to below can be found in the main chapter text of PESA.

3.1 Resource DEL

  • Total resource DEL was £479.8 billion in 2023-24, compared to £449.9 billion in 2022-23, in nominal terms.
  • Staff costs increased by 8.4 per cent in 2023-24 (to £178.3 billion) and gross current procurement rose by 2.5 per cent (to £157.3 billion). A breakdown of gross current procurement by individual departments is shown in table 2.2.
  • Current grants to persons and non-profit bodies totalled £14.2 billion in 2023-24, a decrease of 55.1 per cent. The large fall reflects expenditure on Cost of Living measures in 2022-23.
  • Spending on administration, composed mainly of pay and procurement, stood at £12.7 billion in 2023-24. This is a rise of 3.9 per cent from the previous year.

3.2 Resource AME

  • Resource departmental AME decreased from £353.7 billion to £419.9 billion in 2023-24 in nominal terms. The largest component of spending within resource AME is made up of grants to persons and non-profit bodies, which is mainly social security benefits. Expenditure on this heading rose by 6.0 per cent to £291.3 billion in 2023-24 from £274.9 billion in the previous year.
  • In table 2.1 for resource departmental AME, take up of provisions showed the largest increase in 2023-24 with a total of -£25.8 billion compared to -£181.6 billion the previous year. This reflects an increase in provisions by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on Nuclear Decommissioning.
  • Depreciation decreased to £64.2 billion from £120.6 billion in 2022-23. This reflects, in part, changes in the fair value of the Bank of England Asset Purchase Facility Fund (APF) within HM Treasury’s budget in 2022-23.

3.3 Capital budgets

  • Capital spending within budgets was £183.1 billion in 2023-24, an increase of 36.0 per cent on the previous year. The majority of capital spending occurred within DEL.
  • Capital support for public corporations totalled £46.0 billion in 2023-24 compared to £8.6 billion in 2022-23, an increase of £37.4 billion. This reflects an increase in expenditure by HM Treasury on the Bank of England Asset Purchase Facility Fund.

The tables in chapter 4 show trends in public spending on a longer run basis than other chapters in this release, in nominal, real (inflation-adjusted) and percentage of GDP terms.
Table 4.1 shows long run trends in Total Managed Expenditure (TME) and its Public Sector Current Expenditure (PSCE) and Public Sector Net Investment (PSNI) components back to 1981-82.
Tables 4.2 to 4.4 show total expenditure on services split by high level spending function (health, education, social protection, etc.) back to 2001-02.

  • During 2023-24, Total Managed Expenditure has increased in nominal terms by £59.4 billion (5.1 per cent), and decreased in real (inflation-adjusted) terms by £12.7 billion (-1.0 per cent).
  • TME as a percentage of GDP, which shows the size of the public sector relative to the size of the whole economy, was 44.7 per cent in 2023-24. This has fallen from 45.3 per cent in 2022-23.
  • In real terms, spending in six of the ten functions (excluding EU transactions) decreased whilst spending in four functions increased during 2023-24.
  • The largest real terms percentage decreases were in ‘Economic affairs’ (-31.0 per cent), mainly as a result of a fall in ‘enterprise and economic development’, this was followed by ‘Recreation, culture and religion’ (-16.0 per cent), and by ‘General public services’ (-10.3 per cent) which decreased mainly due to public sector debt interest.
  • The largest real terms increases in spending were in ‘Housing and community amenities’ (8.0 per cent), and in ‘Social protection’ (5.5 per cent).
  • For greater detail see Table 5.2, which shows a breakdown of public spending at the sub-functional level.

From 2011-12 onwards the ‘grant-equivalent element of student loans’ is no longer part of the TES framework and has therefore been removed from the Education function. Therefore figures are not directly comparable between 2010-11 and 2011-12. A full explanation of this decision can be found in PESA 2016 Annex E.

5. Public sector spending by function, sub-function and economic category

  • The tables in chapter 5 of this release present analysis of total public sector expenditure on services split by function, sub-function and economic category.
  • Year on year changes on a functional basis as described below are derived from tables 4.2 or 5.4, whilst sub-functional changes year on year are derived from table 5.2.
  • These presentations are more stable between years than presentations of data by government department on a budgeting basis (Chapters 1 and 2) because they are not affected by changes in the structure of Government over time.

5.1 Functional tables

  • In nominal terms, spending in seven of the ten functions (excluding EU transactions) increased in 2023-24.
  • The largest increases in percentage terms were in ‘Housing and community amenities ‘ (14.7 per cent), ‘Social protection’ (12.1 per cent), and ‘Public order and safety’ (8.0 per cent). The three functional decreases in percentages terms were in ‘Economic affairs’ (-26.7 per cent), Recreation, culture and religion (-10.8 per cent) and ‘General public services’ (-4.7 per cent).

5.2 Sub-functional tables

  • The largest nominal spending increase by function in 2023-24 was in ‘Social protection’, which rose by £39.0 billion to a total of £360.9 billion (an increase of 12.1 per cent). This was largely driven by an increase of £18.2 billion in ‘Old age’ related expenditure, of which ‘pensions’ increased by £17.0 billion.
  • ‘Health’ saw the second largest nominal increase in 2023-24 of £8.3 billion. Within this, ‘Medical services’ rose by £14.6 billion while ‘Central and other health services’ fell by £6.0 billion.
  • ‘Education’ saw the third largest nominal increase in 2023-24 of £4.1 billion (an increase of 3.9 per cent), of which ‘Tertiary education’ rose by £2.6 billion.

6. Central government own expenditure

The tables in chapter 6 of Public Spending Statistics (PSS) present analyses of central government own expenditure. This is spending by government departments and other central government bodies on their own activities. Central government support for local government and capital support for public corporations is not included.

  • Tables 6.1 to 6.3 show central government expenditure on a budgeting basis, consistent with the data shown in chapters 1 and 2.
  • Tables 6.4 to 6.6 show expenditure on services, consistent with chapters 4 and 5.

6.1 Expenditure in budgets

  • Central government own expenditure within DEL stood at £428.2 billion in 2023-24, up 3.3 per cent on the total of £414.6 billion in 2022-23.
  • Expenditure within AME increased to £432.9 billion in 2023-24 from £370.3 billion in 2022-23. This is largely due to increases in the take up of provisions by DESNZ.

6.2 Expenditure on services

  • Central government’s own current expenditure on services fell to £772.7 billion in 2023-24, from £785.0 billion the previous year. Capital expenditure on services increased from £86.4 billion in 2022-23 to £89.6 billion in 2023-24.
  • As shown in Table 6.4, ‘Social protection’ and ‘Health’ together account for more than half of all of central government own expenditure on services. In 2023-24 spending on social protection increased to £298.9 billion compared to £261.9 billion in the previous year.
  • Expenditure on ‘Central government debt interest’ decreased from £107.6 billion in 2022-23 to £78.3 billion in 2023-24, a decrease of -27.3 per cent.
  • Expenditure on ‘Pay’ rose from £172.7 billion in 2022-23 to £187.2 billion in 2023-24, an increase of 8.5 per cent.

7. Local government financing and expenditure

Chapter 7 analyses central government support for local government within budgets (tables 7.1 to 7.3) and local government expenditure on services (tables 7.4 to 7.8). It deals primarily with Great Britain, as most equivalent spending in Northern Ireland is central government spending carried out by Northern Ireland departments.

7.1 Central government support for Local government

  • Total central government support in DEL was £86.6 billion in 2023-24, up from £81.7 billion the year before. Support in AME rose from £43.3 billion to £50.3 billion over the same period.
  • Capital support for local government rose from £12.3 billion in 2022-23 to £15.6 billion in 2023-24.

7.2 Local government expenditure on services

  • Total local government current expenditure on services was £158.7 billion in 2023-24, up from £154.3 billion in 2022-23. Over the same period total local government capital expenditure on services rose from £20.6 billion to £23.1 billion.
  • As shown in table 7.4, local government current expenditure on ‘Education’ showed an increase from £47.8 billion in 2022-23 to £49.2 billion in 2023-24.
  • Local government current expenditure rose in 2023-24 for six of the ten functions. The three largest increases were seen in ‘Social protection’ (up £2.1 billion), ‘Education’ (up £1.4 billion), and ‘Public order and safety’ (up £0.7 billion).
  • A breakdown of local government expenditure by economic category is shown in table 7.8. Spending on pay, which amounted to £75.1 billion in 2023-24, accounts for over 41 per cent of all spending on services by local government.

8. Public corporations

Chapter 8 analyses the impact of public corporations on departmental budgets and expenditure on services.
Tables 8.1 and 8.2 examine the impact on departmental budgets (DEL and departmental AME), breaking this down by economic category and departmental group.

Tables 8.3 to 8.5 analyse capital spending by public corporations. They break the expenditure down by individual public corporations as well as by function and economic category. Debt interest payments to the private sector, which is the only public corporation current spending that forms part of Total Managed Expenditure (TME), is also included.

  • Public corporations’ capital expenditure was £13.2 billion in 2023-24, up from £6.7 billion the year before.
  • Out of this total, expenditure by the Housing Revenue Account (for England, Scotland and Wales) was £6.9 billion, up from £6.0 billion the previous year.
  • The other main contributors to public corporations’ capital expenditure were London Underground (as Transport Trading Limited) and Scottish Water.

9. Public expenditure by country and additional information

9.1 Country and regional analysis in this release

The Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) is published each autumn. As a result there are no new substantive data on regional spending for this PSS release. However, the four headline tables of the CRA release published in December 2023 have been included in chapter 9.

10. Revisions in this release

All of the data contained in the Public Spending National Statistics are open for revision in every publication. The table below summarises the key revisions in this release.

Revisions to Budgets since July 2023 (£million) 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23
Total Managed Expenditure -219 518 5,772 2,422
Total Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) -3,607 -10,742 -7,364 -4,400
Departmental Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) 3,602 10,740 5,700 -15,084
Other AME -214 520 7,437 21,906
Total resource DEL -3,605 -10,740 -7,485 -4,925
Total capital DEL -2 -1 121 14

Figures for Total Managed Expenditure (TME) are taken from the ONS/HM Treasury Public Sector Finances release. The main revisions since last July’s publication are:

  • Changes to TME and other AME in all years are due to updated ONS data from the May 2024 release. More information about these changes is available in the monthly ONS public sector finances (PSF) release.

  • As announced at Spring Budget 2024, business rates reliefs have been reclassified from DEL to AME, due to volatility and uncertainty in cost estimates. This affects the figures for MHCLG Local Government, with £5.1 billion reclassified in 2024-25. The reclassification has been backdated across all outturn years.

  • The downward revision for 2022-23 departmental AME is largely a result of depreciation for low carbon contracts revised by DESNZ.

  • Local government expenditure has also been revised.

11. GDP deflators and population numbers

11.1 GDP deflators

A number of the tables in this publication give figures in real terms. Real terms figures are the current price outturns or plans adjusted to a constant price level by excluding the effect of general inflation as measured by the GDP deflator at market prices. The real terms figures in this publication are given in 2023-24 prices. The GDP deflators used in this publication are those given below. The most up to date deflators can be found on the GOV.UK website.

Financial year GDP deflator at market prices per cent change on previous year Money GDP (£million)
1981-82 26.124 10.54 298,261
1982-83 28.050 7.37 327,449
1983-84 29.386 4.76 358,062
1984-85 31.102 5.84 385,979
1985-86 32.795 5.44 423,724
1986-87 34.124 4.05 455,183
1987-88 36.111 5.83 511,512
1988-89 38.570 6.81 570,330
1989-90 41.683 8.07 629,559
1990-91 45.184 8.40 679,270
1991-92 47.909 6.03 714,363
1992-93 49.231 2.76 738,807
1993-94 50.634 2.85 780,640
1994-95 51.471 1.65 820,882
1995-96 53.105 3.17 863,062
1996-97 54.902 3.39 922,997
1997-98 54.893 -0.02 964,687
1998-99 55.643 1.37 1,010,042
1999-00 56.386 1.33 1,058,069
2000-01 56.961 1.02 1,114,639
2001-02 57.928 1.70 1,152,363
2002-03 59.244 2.27 1,208,864
2003-04 60.591 2.27 1,272,601
2004-05 62.411 3.00 1,342,153
2005-06 64.119 2.74 1,418,417
2006-07 65.833 2.67 1,486,255
2007-08 67.426 2.42 1,565,822
2008-09 69.854 3.60 1,582,979
2009-10 70.799 1.35 1,557,028
2010-11 72.133 1.88 1,627,823
2011-12 73.405 1.76 1,673,244
2012-13 74.752 1.84 1,725,339
2013-14 76.189 1.92 1,803,853
2014-15 77.116 1.22 1,875,404
2015-16 77.671 0.72 1,932,100
2016-17 79.438 2.27 2,013,605
2017-18 80.682 1.57 2,098,808
2018-19 82.384 2.11 2,173,677
2019-20 84.329 2.36 2,244,509
2020-21 88.921 5.45 2,085,084
2021-22 88.192 -0.82 2,361,920
2022-23 94.134 6.74 2,553,253
2023-24 100.000 6.23 2,720,272

Data are based on the June 2024 National Accounts figures from ONS.

Please note that these deflators do not apply to the real terms Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) tables 9.3 and 9.4 that were originally published in December 2023.

11.2 Population numbers by country and region

The population numbers used in Chapter 9 are derived from ONS’s mid-year estimates as used in the December 2023 Country and Regional Analysis release.

ONS’s most recent mid-year population estimates for the UK are directly available online.

12. Future development of Public Spending Statistics

Subject to final development work, it is currently planned that an underlying dataset containing budgeting data will be published alongside the July PSS 2024 publication in due course. The development of this publication was first announced within the July 2023 PSS release, based on feedback from a user consultation. The format of this database will be similar to the Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) database. The purpose of this database is to allow users to access underlying data to align to the departmental totals within PESA chapter 1 and chapter 2 for outturn years, and will contain the following fields:

Field Description
Year The financial year in which the expenditure falls within
Economic Budget Code This shows whether spending is short-term (Resource) or long-term (Capital).
Economic Ringfence Code Provides a breakdown of the non-ringfenced and depreciation ringfenced resource budgets, and some general capital and financial transaction ringfenced budgets within capital.
Control Budget Code This dimension splits the data into 2 parts:
1) Department Expenditure Limits (DEL) – which is controllable spend for departments relating to budgets that are usually set for 3 years in advance in a Spending Review.
2) Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) – which cannot reasonably be subject to firm three-year limits as for DEL. Typically, spend is demand-led and less predictable.
Control Budget Detail Code This is a lower-level breakdown of ‘Control Budget Code’ which, for example, separates data into whether it is Programme or Administration spend which typically scores under DEL; or whether AME spend relates to department spend.
SR Group Long Name SR stands for ‘Spending Review’, and the groups refer to the department or part of the public sector responsible for the spending.
Segment Code A department or body’s segment code taken from the Online System for Central Accounting and Reporting (OSCAR)
Segment Name The OSCAR segment name
PESA Economic Group Long Name The Code and Name of the economic category of spending used in the creation of PESA publications.
Amount Levels of expenditure shown are in £’000s. Expenditure is on an accruals accounting basis, that recognises when costs occur rather than when the payment is made, as opposed to cash accounting.

This publication will be treated as experimental statistics, where we will look to further develop and improve the publication based on user feedback. If you have any further questions about the contents of the database please contact [email protected]

We would be interested in readers’ views on how PSS might be developed to further increase its value to users. Please write to:

The Editor, PESA
Government Financial Reporting
Floor 2 Red Zone
HM Treasury
1 Horse Guards Road
London
SW1A 2HQ

[email protected]

  1. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 ↩

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