Budget Documents

The speech that the Chancellor gave in the House of Commons is available here. Yesterday,s Hansard - with the debate which started immediately afterwards is available here. The debate will continue today, resume on Monday 14th and conclude on Tuesday 15th March.

Documents related to the Budget, published by HM Treasury are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spring-budget-2017-documents. These include

The Red Book - which includes the Budget Report and the Office of Budget Responsibility's Budget forecasts.

More details on the policies and impacts of budget measures are also available through the above link.

In summary, the Government makes the following claims about its' approach -

"As the UK begins the formal process of exiting the European Union, the Spring Budget puts economic stability first. Following a period of robust economic growth, record levels of employment and a falling deficit, it sets out further progress in restoring the public finances to health. Building on the Industrial Strategy, it goes further in tackling the UK’s productivity challenge.

The Budget sets out actions the government will take to:

* help young people from ordinary working families across the country get the skills they need to do the high-paid, high-skilled jobs of the future, vital for a competitive workforce

* give more children the chance to go to a good or outstanding school that sets them up to succeed

* support the social care system with substantial additional funding, so people get the care they deserve as they grow older, and support both local NHS plans and improvements to Accident and Emergency with new capital investment

* invest in cutting-edge technology and innovation, so Britain continues to be at the forefront of the global technology revolution

*continue to bring down the deficit so the UK gets back to living within its means, and can fund public services for the long-term through a fair and sustainable tax system

By investing in the future, the Budget helps make the most of the opportunities ahead by laying the foundations of a stronger, fairer, better Britain – a country that works for everyone.

The Spring Budget also marks the transition to a single fiscal event each year, an autumn Budget."

Analysis of the budget can be found at

The Guardian

Financial Times

Professor Michael-Gad, City University, London

The President's Budget

Access to the documents giving the detail of the Budget proposed by President Obama can be found here.

They relate to Fiscal Year 2014, which begins on 1st October 2013.

Background to the Budget process can be found here.

The Budget

This afternoon the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, delivered his budget statement. It was delivered to the Chamber of the House of Commons. This is appropriate since Ministers are accountable to Parliament - and major policy statements and decisions should be delivered to Parliament - and an opportunity given for MPs to comment and to ask further questions. The statement though is only an outline. It is accompanied by large documents (though thankfully not as large as the documentation released as part of the US President's budget. They were available for MPs and Peers to pick up once the statement had been made. A set of them are sitting in front of me now, as I write this in Portcullis House (the most modern part of the Parliamentary Estate - linked by a tunnel to the main Palace of Westminster - which includes the 913 year old Westminster Hall). The documents include - in bright red - a Copy of the Budget Report - a 116 page document which includes an Executive Summary and the Report itself and details of the Budget Policy decisions. There is a Budget Forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility. A second document published by the Office for Budget Responsibility is its "Economic and fiscal outlook". Lots of detail for MPs to use in their consideration of the Budget. The Budget debate has already begun on the floor of the House of Commons; a Finance Bill will be introduced and the Treasurt Select Committee will seek to scrutinise the Budget. The documents, and associated press releases (many of which will be published in full in tomorrow's serious newspapers) can be downloaded (for free!) at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget2012.htm (see links of the right of the page)

Thetford & Norwich

On Friday we took a leisurely drive towards Norwich. We stopped in the town of Thetford, just off the A11. It's a town I had always wanted to visit, as it was the birthplace of Thomas Paine. It's a very pleasant small town to visit (Jones the Butchers does an excellent sausage in a bap - and tea is available at the Art Gallery in the Guildhall). There is a town trail relating to Thomas Paine. The leaflet is available in a PDF. We did the trail, and I look took lots of video footage - which I will turn into a short video about him. (It may be a little while as I am currently in the middle of marking W201 eTMAs and preparing documents for my next meeting in Hull for my Ph.D.).

Afterwards we drove on to Norwich. We viewed the exterior of the Castle (a tour will be undertaken on a later visit). There was a memorial to Robert Kett - leader of "Kett's Rebellion" in 1549 - "a notable leader in the long struggle of the common people of England to escape from a servile life into the freedom of just conditions". The rebellion which took his name was one of many at the time againgst enclosures. The already rich and powerful were re-distributing wealth away from ordinary people towards themselves. Eventually some people said, enough is enough.

By the way the Budget Statement will be made in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

The President's Budget

The documentation relating to the Budget will be published at 11-15 EDT (4-15pm GMT) at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget

Unlike the UK Budget - when the Chancellor's announcements are certain of being enacted by Parliament (If they weren't, the Government could fall!) - the Executive's Budget in the US is a request which Congress can decline to give effect to.

How Congress Monitors and Assesses Budgets

The Congressional Budget Office was set up by Congress to give specialist advice on costing and budgetary issues. It reviews legislatives proposals and the budget put forward by the Executive Branch. As a former elected official myself, I know how important it is to challenge the assumptions behind claims about the costs and savings of proposed actions.

The agency is composed primarily of economists and public policy analysts. About three-quarters of its professional staff hold advanced degrees, mostly in economics or public policy.

A fact sheet on the CBO is available here.

CBO Reports are published on its website http://www.cbo.gov/

The Analysis of the President's proposed budget for FY 2012 can be accessed here.

Budget Day

Today is Budget Day - and while it will be, as always, a great parliamentary occasion - few are looking forward to it. Good news is likely to be in scarce supply. This has been labelled by the Government as an "Emergency Budget". The last Government introduced its budget in March - but now the new administration wishes to substitute its budgetary measures.

A Budget speech normally has two distinct parts. The first part is a report on the current and forecast state of the British economy. Much of the detail is already available in the Office of Budget Responsibility's recent forecasts - and the Government has produced The Spending Review Framework

The second part of the speech deals with taxation.

After the speech has been delivered the Commons need to pass a Provisional Collection of Taxes motion - this allows the continuation of existing taxes and any new taxes or amendments to take effect - prior to the passing of the Finance Bill. Without it the changes couldn't take place.

There is an excellent House of Commons Standard Note on the Budget available here.

Budget Day

This afternoon Alistair Darling will present his budget. It will be a day of great excitement and tradition at Westminster. The purpose of his statement is to report to Parliament on the current and future state of the economy; and to announce changes in taxation measures.




A fourteen minute recording is available on the parliamentary website about the history and traditions of the Budget - http://www.parliament.uk/about/podcasts/budget.cfm. A factsheet is available at http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/p05.pdf.

The Hansard Society have done a lot of work on the current process - and proposals for reform. Their book, 'The Fiscal Maze' is downloadable at http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/downloads/archive/2007/09/17/the-fiscal-maze-jul-2006.aspx

Budget resolutions are passed to give effect to any tax changes announced - and these are then permanent effect after the Finance Bill is passed.

The Treasury maintains a Budget website at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/bud_bud09_index.htm