2 Appropriation Acts
4. Appropriation Acts are the final stage of the
procedure for approving most of Government expenditure,[3]
which can be described briefly as follows:[4]
a) Estimates are presented to the House of Commons
for the expenditure of Government and certain non-Governmental
bodies;[5] these relate
to a particular financial year and usually appear in batches:
Votes on Account before the financial year starts; Main Estimates
and Supplementary Estimates during the financial year; and (if
necessary) Excess Votes after the financial year, if an Estimate
turns out to have been overspent.
b) The House of Commons approves these Estimates,
sometimes individually after debate on one of three Estimates
Days in each session, but mostly without debate on three "roll-up"
days each session (which are usually, but do not have to be, the
same as the Estimates Days).
c) The totals approved by the House of Commons
are given statutory authority in a Consolidated Fund Bill (usually
three per session, introduced immediately after the approval of
Estimates on "roll-up" days).
d) The last Consolidated Fund Bill of a session,
usually in the summer, also "appropriates" the expenditure
authorised by that and previous Consolidated Fund Bills by listing
the amounts and the purposes for which they may be spent, as previously
set out in the Estimates. This Bill is introduced as the Consolidated
Fund (Appropriation) Bill and becomes the Appropriation Act.
5. Occasionally this timetable is disrupted by a
General Election, in which case an Appropriation Act is passed
before Parliament is dissolved, and there may be more than one
Appropriation Act in the ensuing session.
6. The importance of the timing of the Appropriation
Act is that it provides the legal basis against which the Resource
Accounts of each department can be audited. Expenditure authorised
in Supplementary Estimates presented after the summer recess (usually
the Winter and Spring Supplementary Estimates) are not appropriated
until the following summer, usually about three months after the
end of the relevant financial year, which means that the audited
Resource Accounts cannot usually be presented until after the
Appropriation Act receives Royal Assent.
7. The Government has been attempting to achieve
earlier presentation of the Resource Accounts, in a scheme called
"faster closing",[6]
and their target is to present all of them before the House rises
in July in 2006.[7] The
Government therefore proposes that the Winter and Spring Supplementary
Estimates (and any Excess Votes relating to the previous financial
year) should be appropriated in March, with the Main Estimates
(and any Summer Supplementary Estimates) being appropriated in
the summer as before. The March appropriation provisions would
be included in the Consolidated Fund Bill which is already introduced
in that month under the current system.[8]
Because Consolidated Fund and Appropriation Bills cannot be debated,[9]
no additional time on the floor of the House would be taken as
a result of the change.
8. The principle of annual Appropriation Acts, passed
as near as possible to the end of the session, was originally
intended in part to avoid the Government ending the session prematurely
by prorogation. As the Clerk Assistant explains in his paper,
the proposals do not jeopardise this principle, as the new Appropriation
Act in March will deal only with Estimates for the previous financial
year, leaving the Vote on Account for the current year agreed
the previous November and the current year's main Estimates to
be appropriated in June or July.[10]
9. It will be to the advantage of the House, and
of select committees in particular, if Resource Accounts are available
as soon as possible after the end of the financial year to which
they relate. We therefore support the proposal for two Appropriation
Acts each year.
10. The current statutory deadline for presentation
to Parliament of audited Resource Accounts is 31 January following
the end of the financial year.[11]
Most Resource Accounts are currently presented in November, even
in cases where there have been no Winter or Spring Supplementary
Estimates (and therefore where the auditing process could have
begun in April).
11. We recommend that the Government publish annual
lists showing the dates on which each Resource Account is (a)
laid before Parliament and (b) published, to show the extent to
which the Government's desire for earlier publication is being
achieved. In due course the statutory deadlines might be brought
forward.
3 Some Government expenditure is not subject to this
system, including expenditure out of the National Insurance Fund,
expenditure out of Trading Funds, and certain "Consolidated
Fund Standing Services", which are, by law, payable directly
out of the Consolidated Fund without the need for annual approval.
There are further details in Appendix 2, note 2. Back
4
A more detailed description is in Appendix 2, pp 38-55. Back
5
Separate Estimates are presented for the House of Commons Administration
by the House of Commons Commission, for the National Audit Office
by the Public Accounts Commission, and for the Electoral Commission
by the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission. Estimates
for the House of Lords, for the House of Commons: Members Estimate
and for the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
and the Health Service Commissioner are presented in the same
volume as Government Estimates. Back
6
See the booklet Managing Resources: Faster Closing, HM
Treasury, January 2003. The document is available on www.hm-treasury... Back
7
Appendix 1, para 18. Back
8
Appendix 1, paras 5-25. Back
9
SO No 56. Back
10
Appendix 2, paras 28-32. Back
11
Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000, s 6, reproducing the
timetable previously contained in the Exchequer and Audit Departments
Act 1921, Sch 1. Powers exist to change the timetable (s 22 of
the 2000 Act). In 2003, nine Resource Accounts for 2002-03 were
presented and published before the summer recess (Appendix 1,
Annex B). Back
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