In addition, departments and local authorities now have greater flexibility to carry forward unspent provision from one year into the next, avoiding wasteful end-year spending surges. There is a small Reserve to deal with emergencies and genuine contingencies, but there is not now an annual Public Expenditure Survey, as in the past, in which departments could bid for extra funds. Equally, the Treasury will not be able to use an annual survey to impose incremental cuts. This gives departments a solid base for planning and it means they can now concentrate on the better management of existing programmes. AME spending is reviewed twice a year as part of the Budget process.
More detail is given below.
The aim is to force them to prioritise competing pressures and contain them within an overall limit, rather than giving them an opportunity to come back for more. The DEL Reserve is much smaller than under the old spending regime. Setting a smaller reserve sends a clear signal that reserve claims will only be met where there is a genuinely unforeseeable emergency. The Treasury has set itself a PSA target of ensuring that the DEL for the three years of the CSR period is adhered to. Other items include Common Agricultural Policy payments and negative income taxes classified as public expenditure, including Mortgage Interest Relief and the Working Families Tax Credit.