Main Estimates 2018-19

The Government published its spending plans for 2018-19 on 19 April 2018, in the Main Estimates 2018-19.

The Backbench Business Committee and the Liaison Committee agreed that Estimates Day debates should be held as follows:

Monday 2 July:

Tuesday 3 July

Following the debates, the House agreed Estimates motions, and the spending plans will now pass into law through the Supply and Appropriation (Main Estimates) (no.2) Bill 2017-19.

Summary of plans

This briefing paper, prepared jointly by the House of Commons Library and the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit, gives more detail of the Government's spending plans, including details for each department.

Scrutiny Unit data visualisations

The House of Commons Scrutiny Unit is producing data visualisations of the 2018-19 spending plans contained in the Main Estimates for each major Government department. The visualisations show spending trends, changes since last year and how current plans for 2018-19 compare to original proposals in the 2015 Spending Review, together with some context. To view these, click on the relevant link below:

Note on sources: Main Estimates 2018-19 (see link below); Main Estimates 2018-19 memoranda (see links below); the core tables of individual departments' Annual Reports and Accounts 2016-17, and in some cases earlier years; Spending Review 2015 settlement. Other sources are quoted directly in the slides.

Government Departments' Estimates memoranda

Government departments are required to produce an Estimates memorandum for the relevant select committee to explain what is proposed in their Main Estimate and how proposals compare to past spending plans. Select Committees publish these memoranda on their webpages- for ease of reference links are given below

Smaller departments' memoranda are here:

Formal documentation

The formal documents which set out these spending plans- the 2018-19 Main Estimates themselves- are here.

The original Spending Review 2015 document on which these plans are based is here.