The Online System for Central Accounting and Reporting (OSCAR) Tool
OSCAR is a cross government tool maintained by HM Treasury (HMT).
OSCAR is critical in supporting government to manage spending allowable by government departments, devolved administrations and other government financed public bodies.
HMT use OSCAR to:
- collect multiple cross government datasets;
- consolidate these datasets; and
- report (and publish) data for Parliament and other stakeholders to support them to make informed decisions.
Find out more about how to use the OSCAR system.
The financial, and in some cases non-financial, analysis produced via the OSCAR tool is used by HMT, Cabinet Office and HM Government to analyse financial forecasts, outturns and other key performance indicators. This analysis directly supports HMT to monitor public sector budget, forecast and spend.
Reports created via the OSCAR tool use a set of standard codes (e.g. Organisation, Chart of Accounts, Sub-segment, Period and others), as this supports greater consistency of reporting and easier communication of information.
The datasets collected via the OSCAR tool feed directly into the government financial reporting landscape.
Find out more about the government financial reporting landscape.
Currently seven core financial datasets are captured by HMT via the OSCAR tool:
Workforce and Pay Remit (WPR)
Departments provide data to HMT on their forecasts and outturns for the pay round. This enables HMT to confirm that departments are abiding by the parameters set in the annual pay guidance, to report overall priorities and risks to Chief Secretary and to set overall civil service pay parameters for future years.
Find out more information about the WPR Process.
Private Finance Initiative (PFI):
The Government is under an obligation to disclose PFI/PF2 information to Parliament. The financial data collected sets out departments and Devolved Administrations PFI/PF2 liabilities and is used by a variety of bodies and Parliamentary Committees including the National Audit Office, Office of National Statistics, Office for Budget Responsibility and Committee of Public Accounts.
Find out more information about the PFI process.
Plans
HMT use plan data for a range of different purposes and outputs. One of these outputs is the Main Estimates and Supplementary Estimates. These are the means of obtaining from Parliament, the legal authority to consume resources and spend cash the government needs to finance department’s agreed spending programmes.
Access previous Main Estimate datasets.
Access previous Supplementary Estimate datasets.
Forecast outturn:
HMT use forecast outturns to track and report spending throughout the year. Departments provide outturn and forecast data for the current financial year, split by month. The outturn data is an important data source for the monthly Public Sector Finances bulletin, including statistics on government borrowing and debt, while historical forecast outturn data is also published periodically as part of a transparency release.
Access the Public Sector Finance Statistical Bulletin.
Access the OSCAR transparency publication.
Outturns
HMT use outturn data for a range of different purposes. Some elements of outturn data are published by HMT in the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA). It is published annually and refreshed on a regular basis throughout the year.
Access previous PESA datasets.
Whole of Government Accounts (WGA)
WGA consolidates the audited accounts of approximately 3,800 organisations across the public sector to provide a comprehensive, accounts-based picture of the financial position of the United Kingdom public sector.
Country and Regional Analysis (CRA)
There is a requirement that certain larger areas of spend are split out to indicate their ‘coverage; i.e., what proportion relates to North East England, North West England, Northern Ireland etc. Departments provide this information on an annual basis.