Guidance on producing Estimates Memoranda

Requirements for production of Estimates Memoranda: revised guidance

Most public spending requires annual authorisation of Parliament through a process known as supply. The supply process requires government departments, other public bodies and pension funds to present their plans for spending in documents known as Estimates. Main Estimates set out initial plans at the start of the year; Supplementary Estimates set out any proposed changes to those plans, later in the year.

Each Estimate must be accompanied by an explanatory Estimates Memorandum.

This webpage provides resources and guidance on the production of those Estimates memoranda. The guidance reflects the revised requirements with effect from 2019-20 Supplementary Estimates onwards.

Guidance

The guidance and resources below relate to the production of the Estimates memoranda. This supersedes the previously published guidance contained in Annex F of the Treasury guidance manual. (Questions from departments on any other aspect of Estimates and their production should continue to be directed to HM Treasury)

In preparing Estimates memoranda, Departments are responsible for ensuring they undertake the relevant assurance processes, including contact with Treasury spending teams and sign off approval of the Estimates memorandum by the departmental Principal Accounting Officer.

Estimates memoranda should be submitted to committees and the Scrutiny Unit no later than the day of publication of Estimates.

Memoranda types

Separate guidance on meeting the requirements for Estimates memoranda and mock up examples of Estimates memoranda have been produced for four different types of department/body presenting an estimate:

Larger departments* (excluding Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Offices)
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Offices
Smaller departments
Pension funds

* Major departments, includes HMRC

“Smaller” departments includes any department or body presenting an estimate, which is not included in the other categories.

The mock-ups and accompanying guidance notes for these different groups are provided below.

Main Estimates

Larger departments	Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland Offices	Smaller departments and regulators	Pension funds
Mock-up	Mock-up	Mock-up	Mock-up
Guidance	Guidance	Guidance	Guidance
Excel tables	Excel tables

Supplementary Estimates

Larger departments	Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland Offices	Smaller departments and regulators	Pension funds
Mock-up	Mock-up	Mock-up	Mock-up
Guidance	Guidance	Guidance	Guidance
Excel tables	Excel tables

Uses of the Memoranda

The Estimates memoranda are used to inform Parliamentary scrutiny of the department, mainly through select committee enquiries or Estimates Day Debates in the House. See the following flow chart on the use of estimates memoranda (PNG 114 KB)

The Scrutiny Unit provides various analytical resources for Members’ use, based on the memoranda and other data sources. Examples of these can be found on Scrutiny Unit webpage for the Main Estimates 2019-20, as well as links to all the relevant Estimates memoranda for that year.

Scrutiny Unit contacts

If you have any queries regarding the guidance above or the production of the Estimate memorandum, please direct them to the relevant Scrutiny Unit specialist.

Alex Knight (Head of Financial Scrutiny) 020 7219 5767	Colin Harrison (Finance Specialist) 020 7219 4236	Louise McNair (Finance Specialist) 020 7219 6157	Stephen Morffew (Financial Analyst) 020 7219 1349
Department for Business and Trade	Department for Education	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	Cabinet Office
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office	Department for Energy Security and Net Zero	Home Office	Department for Health & Social Care
Crown Estate	Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport	Ministry of Defence	Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
SIA	Department for Science, Innovation & Technology	Crown Prosecution Service	Department for Transport
UK Export Finance	Northern Ireland	National Archives	HMRC
Overseas Pensions	Scotland	National Crime Agency	HM Treasury
	Wales	Ofwat	Department for Work and Pensions
	CMA	Supreme Court	Food Standards Agency
	Charity Commission	Serious Fraud Office	GAD
	Ofsted	Treasury Solicitor	HM Land Registry
	Ofqual	Armed Forces Pension	National Savings & Investments
	Ofgem	Judicial Pension	Office of Rail and Road
	Teachers Pension		Parliamentary Ombudsman
			Statistics Board
			Civil Service Pensions
			Royal Mail Pensions

Background

During 2016 and 2017, the House of Commons Procedure Committee conducted an inquiry into the Scrutiny of Government’s Supply Estimates. The committee's report, Authorising Government expenditure: steps to more effective scrutiny, was published in April 2017.

The report recommended changes to the way debates on Estimates are selected and improvements to Estimates documentation to assist Members in better understanding what Estimates contain. Specifically, the Committee recommended that “the Treasury and other Government departments work with the [House of Commons] Scrutiny Unit to ensure that memoranda better serve the needs of users in explaining and presenting the content and purpose of each Estimate. We recommend that the Scrutiny Unit, acting on behalf of the House of Commons Service, conduct a review of current Estimates memoranda guidance, its application and adherence to it and communicate and disseminate the results of this review and of existing best practice. “

In response to this recommendation, the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit conducted a Review of the Estimates memoranda in order to identify examples of good practice in Estimates memoranda.

In the light of this review, the Scrutiny Unit consulted the Treasury and government departments on proposed revised guidance on the preparation of estimates memoranda, designed to better meet the needs of Parliament, build on existing best practice, and to enable information to be presented more consistently.

In 2019 the Scrutiny Unit conducted an assessment of the how government bodies have been applying the guidance. Minor revisions to guidance are being made as a result. Further details are here. For most departments these changes have now been reflected in the revised version of the guidance (above) , which applies with effect from Supplementary Estimates 2019-20. For Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Office, guidance will be revised shortly and will take effect from Main Estimates 2020-21.