Budget of the United Kingdom

For the most recent British Budget, see October 2024 United Kingdom budget.

 () United Kingdom budget
Websitewww.gov.uk

The Budget of His Majesty's Government is an annual budget set by HM Treasury for the following financial year, with the revenues to be gathered by HM Revenue and Customs and the expenditures of the public sector, in compliance with government policy.[1] The budget statement is one of two statements made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons, with the Spring Statement being made the following year.

Budgets are usually set once every year and are announced in the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since autumn 2017 the United Kingdom budget typically takes place in the Autumn in order to allow major tax changes to occur annually, well before the start of the fiscal year.[2] The most recent budget was presented by Rachel Reeves on 30 October 2024.

The UK fiscal year ends on 5 April each year. The financial year ends on 31 March of each year. Thus, the UK budget for financial year 2021 runs from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 and is often referred to as 2021–22.

Historically, the budget was usually released in March, less than one month before the beginning of the new fiscal year. Parliament was not expected to take action on a budget for the fiscal year until the summer, several months after the start of the fiscal year. For that reason, Parliament typically passed a "Vote on Account" in early spring that provided continuity of funding into the new fiscal year, up until the point that the new budget was enacted. The spending authorized in the Vote on Account was normally 45% of the amounts already authorized in the current fiscal year, taking into account the Main Estimates and any revised or Supplementary Estimates already approved by Parliament.[3] Legislative action on the proposed budget generally aligned with the executive's original budget request; failure to carry the budget would regarded as tantamount to a vote of no confidence.

Since November 2017 the budget was moved to the Autumn, with a view to passing the Finance Act before the commencement of the Financial Year. Votes on Account should no longer be necessary.[2]

Governmental departments submit their funding requests — called "Main Supply Estimates" – to HM Treasury. The government then releases this data in a large consolidated document titled "Central Government Supply Estimates (Budget Year-Following Year): Main Supply Estimates" [4]

The government reserves the right to submit "Supplementary Estimates" in the spring and winter of a given fiscal year to update its agencies' spending totals for the current financial year and report any governmental re-organizations. When an agency submits a Supplementary Estimate, it is customary to also submit an "Estimate Memorandum" to the agency's relevant oversight committee in Parliament describing and justifying the changes. This condenses two functions – reporting supplemental spending requests and agency re-organizations.

  1. ^ "[Archived Content] PESA 2007". Hm-treasury.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Autumn Statement 2016". November 2016. Section 1.4.
  3. ^ "Central Government Supply Estimates 2012–13; Vote on Account, HC 1756" (PDF). February 2012. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 February 2014.
  4. ^ "Central Government Supply Estimates (2011–12): Main Supply Estimates" (PDF). 26 April 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 February 2014.