A constructive critique of the treasury’s country and regional analysis of public expenditure

The accurate measurement and control of public expenditure is fundamental to successful government: it is essential at each of the stages of policy development, implementation, and monitoring. This paper is concerned with issues in the measurement of public expenditure in the post-devolution United Kingdom: in particular, we provide a constructive critique of the expenditure data currently published by the Treasury. Our study is based on two regular exercises carried out by the Treasury: a. the publication of the annual Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA), b. the publication of the biennial Treasury Funding Statement for the Devolved Administrations (TFS).