Accredited official statistics

Public spending statistics: February 2025

Published 28 February 2025

About this release

This release presents updated Public Spending data for the years 2019-20 to 2023-24. All data in this release are National Statistics and are on an outturn basis. TME figures are consistent with data published by the ONS in February 2025. All data and further background detail can be found in the accompanying tables published alongside this release. We welcome any feedback at pesa.document@hmtreasury.gov.uk

Total expenditure (£billions)

Expenditure	2022-23	2023-24
Total DEL expenditure	541.4	558.5
Resource departmental AME	353.8	425.5

^{Budgets are divided into Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL), which are firm plans for three or four years, and Annually Managed Expenditure (AME), covering spending which is demand-led, less predictable and more difficult to control. In the accompanying excel tables, table 1 shows the aggregate position for all departments and all types of spending, with some of the main types of spending shown separately. Table 8 shows in detail how the budgeting data is used to construct the Total Managed Expenditure (TME) figures published by the Office for National Statistics. These are based on National Accounts concepts and are used in the aggregates which underlie the government’s fiscal policy.}

Expenditure	2022-23	2023-24
Total Managed Expenditure (TME)	1,158.9	1,229.9
Total expenditure on services (TES)	1,076.3	1,111.3

• TME was £1,229.9 billion in 2023-24, an increase of 6.1 per cent on the previous year.
• TES was £1,111.3 billion in 2023-24, an increase of 3.3 per cent on the previous year.

Total Departmental Expenditure Limits, 2023-24 (£millions)

^{For the full table, including years from 2019-20 onward, please refer to Table 7 in the accompanying budget tables excel.}

Departmental Group	Total DEL
Health and Social Care	188,469
Education	88,131
Home Office	20,311
Justice	11,902
Law Officers’ Departments	879
Defence	53,923
Single Intelligence Account	4,183
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office	11,108
MHCLG – Local Government	9,580
MHCLG – Housing and Communities	9,611
Culture, Media and Sport	2,068
Science, Innovation and Technology	12,892
Transport	29,962
Energy Security and Net Zero	6,425
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	6,671
Business and Trade	2,784
Work and Pensions	9,031
HM Revenue and Customs	6,694
HM Treasury	357
Cabinet Office	1,090
Scotland	43,297
Wales	19,516
Northern Ireland	16,911
Small and Independent Bodies	2,702

Budgeting Statistics (Tables 1 to 9)

• Total DEL expenditure (Resource DEL excluding depreciation plus Capital DEL) was £558.5 billion in 2023-24, an increase of £17.1 billion or 3.2 per cent on the previous year in nominal terms. The largest increase in DEL spending in nominal terms in 2023-24 were for Health and Education, which increased by £6.3 and £6.2 billion respectively. The largest decrease in DEL spending in nominal terms in 2023-24 was for Energy Security and Net Zero, which was down by £13.0 billion to £6.4 billion. This decrease is largely a result of higher expenditure in 2022-23 related to the energy bills support scheme.
• Total departmental expenditure (Total DEL plus resource and capital departmental AME) was £1,060.2 billion in 2023-24, an increase of £131.9 billion or 14.2 per cent on the previous year.
• Resource departmental AME was £425.5 billion in 2023-24, an increase from £353.8 billion in 2022-23. The largest increase in resource departmental AME spending in nominal terms in 2023-24 was for Energy Security and Net Zero, which was up by £82.1 billion to -£13.5 billion. This mainly reflected the larger reduction in provisions for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in 2022-23.

^{In the accompanying excel tables, tables 1 to 9 show central government departmental spending on a budgetary basis. These are the aggregates used by the government to plan and control expenditure. They cover departments’ own spending as well as support to local government and public corporations. They are consistent with “Estimates” voted by Parliament and broadly consistent with departmental Resource Accounts, which are based on commercial International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adapted for the public sector.}

Real terms public expenditure (£billions)

Functions	2022-23	2023-24
General public services	176.3	162.6
Defence	58.9	56.8
Public order and safety	46.9	48.6
Economic affairs	132.3	94.7
Environment protection	15.2	15.9
Housing and community amenities	18.4	20.9
Health	225.7	221.2
Recreation, culture and religion	15.4	13.4
Education	113.9	113.2
Social protection	341.7	364.3

^{In the accompanying excel tables, tables 10 to 11 present spending under the “expenditure on services” framework. This is based on National Accounts definitions and covers the whole of the public sector. It therefore has wider coverage than the budgeting framework and is also more stable over time.}

Trends in functional expenditure (Tables 10, 10a and 10b)

Compared with the previous year:

• in real terms, spending in four of the ten functions (excluding EU transactions) for 2023-24 increased whilst spending in six functions fell, compared to 2022-23.
• the largest real terms percentage increase was in housing and community amenities (13.5 per cent), mainly as a result of an increase in MHCLG expenditure on affordable housing.
• the largest real terms percentage decrease was in economic affairs (28.4 per cent), mainly as a result of a decrease in enterprise and economic development for DESNZ expenditure on Energy Bills support.
• spending on health shows a nominal increase (4.0 per cent) and a real terms decrease (2.0 per cent) in 2023-24.

^{In the accompanying excel tables, tables 10, 10a and 10b show public sector expenditure on services broken down by function over a longer number of years, allowing long-term trends to be identified. Table 11 presents data broken down by economic categories such as pay or grants.}

Accredited Official Statistics are official statistics that have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and confirmed to comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in November 2011. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

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Spending frameworks used in HM Treasury spending publications

Budgeting	Expenditure on services (TES)
This framework provides information on central government departmental budgets, which are the aggregates used by the government to plan and control expenditure. It covers departmental own spending as well as support to local government and public corporations.	This framework is used in HM Treasury publications for statistical analysis. It is based on National Accounts definitions and covers spending by the whole of the public sector. It therefore has wider coverage than the budgeting framework and is also more stable over time.

Trends in public spending

Chart 1: Trends in public spending since 2001-02

• TME as a percentage of GDP, which shows the size of the public sector relative to the size of the whole economy, was 44.7 per cent in 2023-24, which was a decrease of 0.1 per centage points when compared to 2022-23. Figures for 2020-21 show the highest percentage (53.0 per cent) in the period covered by these tables (from 2001-02), reflecting not only increased spending, but also lower GDP as the economy entered recession during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chart 2: Real terms trends in Public Spending

^{From 2011-12 onwards the ‘grant-equivalent element of student loans’ is no longer part of the TES framework and has therefore been removed from the Education function. Therefore, figures are not directly comparable between 2010-11 and 2011-12. A full explanation of this decision can be found in PESA 2016 Annex E.}

Revisions in this release (since the November 2024 publication)

Expenditure	Amount (£millions)	Comments
Total DEL expenditure	-£1m	There were small changes to Resource and Capital DEL (excluding depreciation) in 2023-24. Changes were driven by final outturn adjustments to expenditure made by several departments.
Resource departmental AME	£6,844m	Driven mainly by downward revisions in 2023-24 by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for provisions related to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Capital departmental AME	-£1,118m	Downward revisions in 2022-23 by the Department for Business and Trade driven mainly by adjustments to BBLs and CBILs expenditure to align to Annual Reports and Accounts.

Changes to Total Managed Expenditure (TME) and public sector debt interest in all years are due to updated ONS data. More information about these changes is available in the monthly ONS public sector finances (PSF) release.

Other Changes

Alongside this release, a table for ‘Research and Development (R&D) Expenditure in Departmental Budgets’ has been published. This will next be updated and published alongside the July 2025 PSS release.

Additional information about the PSS release

Upcoming revisions and changes in forthcoming releases

The next HM Treasury PSS National Statistics release will be published in May 2025. There are no expected changes to the spending frameworks for the next release.

PSS publication schedule for the coming year

Date	Release
May 2025	Contains updates to the PSS series. May is the first publication in which full outturn data for the previous financial year is published, incorporating final data for all local authorities and devolved administrations.
July 2025	The July PSS release contains the first publication of departmental spending outturn for the 2024-25 financial year. Local authority data and much of the data from the devolved administrations are still provisional at this stage of the year. This is the main annual release.
Nov 2025	As well as the PSS release, the Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) is also published in November each year.

GDP deflators and money GDP

Real terms figures are the nominal figures adjusted to 2023-24 price levels using GDP deflators from the Office for National Statistics (released 8 January 2025).

Financial year	GDP deflator at market prices (2023-24 = 100)	% per cent change on previous year	Money GDP (£millions)
2019-20	84.010	2.37	2,241,804
2020-21	88.518	5.37	2,087,400
2021-22	88.000	-0.58	2,356,883
2022-23	94.235	7.08	2,584,841
2023-24	100.000	6.12	2,752,984

^{GDP Deflator: Financial years 2019-20 to 2023-24 taken from ONS series L8GG in Table N.}