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1. Introduction

This Accredited Official Statistics release is intended to provide comprehensive information on public spending. Data are arranged thematically by section. Each section contains overview commentary on the statistics being released, statistical tables, and further background information.

The key data being updated in this release are for the years 2020-21 to 2024-25. This release contains the first estimate of 2024-25 outturn. All data in this release are Accredited Official Statistics and are on an outturn basis. Where major revisions to the data for past years have been made we refer to them in the text accompanying the tables. Further background detail is found in the accompanying background material published alongside this release.

HM Treasury Public Spending Statistics (PSS) provide a range of information about public spending. Further detailed explanations are provided in the PSS guidance document. This information can be found on the main release page.

1.1 Related releases from HM Treasury

• The Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) command paper is an annual release, containing plans data for the Spending Review period, alongside the data contained in this release.
• The quarterly public spending statistics releases update the key series found in this release.
• HM Treasury published a Covid Cost Tracker on gov.uk as accredited official statistics. This was previously published by the NAO. It brings together data from across the UK government. and provide estimates of the cost of measures announced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (where this information is publicly available or has been provided to HM Treasury by government departments).
• Changes to this release have been made in response to requests from the United Kingdom Statistics Authority and feedback received from users. We welcome further user feedback at pesa@hmtreasury.gov.uk

1.2 What’s new

• Policy responsibility for the Government Digital Service, the Central Digital and Data Office, and the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence was transferred from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 24 July 2024. The Infrastructure and Projects Authority transferred from Cabinet Office into HM Treasury on 1 April 2025 merging with the National Infrastructure Commission, to form the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. The transfer of responsibility for the delivery of the Supporting Families programme from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to the Department for Education, which took effect on 1 April 2024, is now also reflected in the figures.
• Not all departments had produced their Annual Report and Accounts for 2024-25 as at publication of PESA 2025. Outturn data may therefore be subject to revisions. The public spending statistics (PSS) release, published on a quarterly basis, will reflect any later revisions made by departments to their 2024-25 outturn.
• Following an ad-hoc release in the February PSS release, the Annual July PSS release now includes an updated table for Research and Development (R&D) expenditure by departments.

2. Departmental budgets

The tables for departmental budgets in chapter 1 bring together information on public expenditure within the current budgeting and control framework. This comprises departmental budgets, including all control totals, as well as reconciling from the budgetary framework to the fiscal aggregates in the National Accounts.

DEL expenditure in real terms (billions)

Expenditure	2023-24	2024-25
Resource DEL	500.6	516.7
Depreciation	30.1	32.3
Capital DEL	111.1	111.9
Total DEL	581.5	596.2

^{Total DEL is given by resource DEL excluding depreciation plus capital DEL.}

2.1 Departmental expenditure limits (DEL)

• Total resource DEL was £516.7 billion in 2024-25, an increase of 3.2 per cent in real terms on the previous year.
• Total resource DEL (RDEL) excluding depreciation was £484.3 billion in 2024-25, an increase of 2.9 per cent in real terms on the previous year.
• Depreciation in resource DEL was £32.3 billion in 2024-25, an increase of 7.5 per cent in real terms on 2023-24.
• Total capital DEL was £111.9 billion in 2024-25, an increase of 0.8 per cent in real terms on the previous year.
• Total DEL in real terms increased by 2.5 per cent in 2024-25 from £581.5 billion in 2023-24 to £596.2 billion.
• The largest increase in DEL spending in real terms in 2024-25 was for Health which was up by £8.4 billion to £204.7 billion. This increase reflects the higher expenditure on the NHS and other programmes in 2024-25.
• The second largest increase in DEL spending in real terms in 2024-25 was for Defence, which was up by £4.1 billion to £60.2 billion. This increase largely reflects higher expenditure on capability and peace keeping programmes in 2024-25.

2.2 Total Departmental Expenditure Limits, 2024-25 (£millions)

^{For the full table, including years from 2020-21 onward, please refer to Table 1.10 in the accompanying Chapter 1 tables file.}

Departmental Group	Total DEL
Health and Social Care	204,704
Education	94,790
Home Office	20,031
Justice	12,664
Law Officers’ Departments	944
Defence	60,218
Single Intelligence Account	4,460
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office	10,949
MHCLG - Local Government	11,330
MHCLG - Housing and Communities	11,999
Culture, Media and Sport	2,062
Science, Innovation and Technology	13,692
Transport	28,419
Energy Security and Net Zero	6,738
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	7,236
Business and Trade	2,431
Work and Pensions	9,526
HM Revenue and Customs	5,873
HM Treasury	1,099
Cabinet Office	892
Scotland	45,264
Wales	20,227
Northern Ireland	17,628
Small and Independent Bodies	3,052

2.3 Annually Managed Expenditure (AME)

• Resource departmental AME increased by £53.9 billion to £496.8 billion in real terms in 2024-25. This is largely due to higher expenditure by Health, Defence, and Energy Security and Net Zero (after a reduction in provisions scored in 2023-24 for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority).
• Capital departmental AME decreased by £13.1 billion to £66.2 billion in real terms in 2024-25.

Departmental AME expenditure in real terms (billions)

Expenditure	2023-24	2024-25
Resource departmental AME	443.0	496.8
Capital departmental AME	79.3	66.2
Total departmental AME	522.3	563.1

3. Economic analysis of budgets

The tables in chapter 2 of Public Spending Statistics present an analysis by economic category of the budgeting aggregates shown in chapter 1. A description of the economic categories referred to below can be found in the main chapter text of PESA.

3.1 Resource DEL

• Total resource DEL was £516.7 billion in 2024-25, compared to £481.0 billion in 2023-24, in nominal terms.
• Staff costs increased by 10.1 per cent in 2024-25 (to £196.7 billion) and gross current procurement rose by 7.8 per cent (to £170.9 billion). A breakdown of gross current procurement by individual departments is shown in table 2.2.
• Spending on administration, composed mainly of pay and procurement, stood at £13.0 billion in 2024-25. This is a rise of 2.2 per cent from the previous year.

3.2 Resource AME

• Resource departmental AME increased from £425.7 billion to £496.8 billion in 2024-25 in nominal terms. The largest component of spending within resource AME is made up of grants to persons and non-profit bodies, which is mainly social security benefits. Expenditure on this heading rose by 6.9 per cent to £311.5 billion in 2024-25 from £291.2 billion in the previous year.
• In table 2.1 for resource departmental AME, take up of provisions showed the largest increase in 2024-25 with a total of £34.4 billion compared to -£19.8 billion the previous year. This reflects large reductions in provisions in 2023-24 by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on Nuclear Decommissioning.

3.3 Capital budgets

• Capital spending within budgets was £178.1 billion in 2024-25, a decrease of -2.6 per cent on the previous year. The majority of capital spending occurred within DEL.
• Capital support for public corporations totalled £35.6 billion in 2024-25 compared to £46.0 billion in 2023-24, a decrease of -£10.3 billion. This reflects lower expenditure by HM Treasury on the Bank of England Asset Purchase Facility Fund.

4. Trends in public spending

The tables in chapter 4 show trends in public spending on a longer run basis than other chapters in this release, in nominal, real (inflation-adjusted) and percentage of GDP terms.
Table 4.1 shows long run trends in Total Managed Expenditure (TME) and its Public Sector Current Expenditure (PSCE) and Public Sector Net Investment (PSNI) components back to 1982-83.
Tables 4.2 to 4.4 show total expenditure on services split by high level spending function (health, education, social protection, etc.) back to 2002-03.

4.1 Trends in TME, PSCE and PSNI (Table 4.1)

• During 2024-25, Total Managed Expenditure has increased in nominal terms by £56.2 billion (4.6 per cent), and in real (inflation-adjusted) terms by £6.2 billion (0.5 per cent).
• TME as a percentage of GDP, which shows the size of the public sector relative to the size of the whole economy, was 44.4 per cent in 2024-25. This has fallen from 44.7 per cent in 2023-24.

4.2 Trends in functional expenditure (Table 4.2 to 4.4)

• In real terms, spending in seven of the ten functions (excluding EU transactions) increased whilst spending in three functions decreased during 2024-25.
• The largest real terms percentage increases were in ‘Defence’ (7.7 per cent), followed by ‘Health’ (4.7 per cent), and by ‘Recreation, culture and religion’ (4.1 per cent).
• The largest real terms decreases in spending were in ‘Economic affairs’ (-11.8 per cent), mainly driven by a decrease of -£5.3 billion in ‘enterprise and economic development’. This was followed by ‘General public services’ (-7.2 per cent).
• For greater detail see Table 5.2, which shows a breakdown of public spending at the sub-functional level.

4.3 Chart 1: Trends in public spending since 2002-03

4.4 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.}

5. Public sector spending by function, sub-function and economic category

• The tables in chapter 5 of this release present analysis of total public sector expenditure on services split by function, sub-function and economic category.
• Year on year changes on a functional basis as described below are derived from tables 4.2 or 5.4, whilst sub-functional changes year on year are derived from table 5.2.
• These presentations are more stable between years than presentations of data by government department on a budgeting basis (Chapters 1 and 2) because they are not affected by changes in the structure of Government over time.

5.1 Functional tables

• In nominal terms, spending in eight of the ten functions (excluding EU transactions) increased in 2024-25.
• The largest increases in percentage terms were in ‘Defence ‘ (12.1 per cent), ‘Health’ (8.9 per cent), and ‘Recreation, culture and religion’ (8.3 per cent). The two functional decreases in percentages terms were in ‘Economic affairs’ (-8.2 per cent), and ‘General public services’ (-3.4 per cent).

5.2 Sub-functional tables

• The largest nominal spending increase by function in 2024-25 was in ‘Health’ with an increase in 2024-25 of £19.9 billion. Within this, ‘Medical services’ rose by £18.5 billion.
• ‘Social Protection’ saw the second largest nominal increase in 2024-25 of £19.3 billion. Within this, ‘Social exclusion n.e.c.’^{[footnote 1]} rose by £9.8 billion, driven largely by an increase of £10.1 billion within ‘family benefits, income support, Universal Credit and tax credits’ (offset slightly by a fall in personal social services).
• ‘Defence’ saw the third largest nominal increase in 2024-25 of £6.9 billion (an increase of 12.1 per cent), of which ‘Military defence’ rose by £5.5 billion.

6. Central government own expenditure

The tables in chapter 6 of Public Spending Statistics (PSS) present analyses of central government own expenditure. This is spending by government departments and other central government bodies on their own activities. Central government support for local government and capital support for public corporations is not included.

• Tables 6.1 to 6.3 show central government expenditure on a budgeting basis, consistent with the data shown in chapters 1 and 2.
• Tables 6.4 to 6.6 show expenditure on services, consistent with chapters 4 and 5.

6.1 Expenditure in budgets

• Central government own expenditure within DEL stood at £462.3 billion in 2024-25, up 7.9 per cent on the total of £428.4 billion in 2023-24.
• Expenditure within AME increased to £505.0 billion in 2024-25 from £438.6 billion in 2023-24. This is largely due to increases in the take up of provisions by DESNZ.

6.2 Expenditure on services

• Central government’s own current expenditure on services increased to £816.3 billion in 2024-25, from £781.1 billion the previous year. Capital expenditure on services increased to £95.8 billion in 2024-25 from £89.8 billion in 2023-24.
• As shown in Table 6.4, ‘Social protection’ and ‘Health’ together account for more than half of all of central government own expenditure on services. In 2024-25 spending on social protection increased to £317.3 billion compared to £298.7 billion in the previous year.
• Expenditure on ‘Central government debt interest’ increased from £82.9 billion in 2023-24 to £84.8 billion in 2024-25, an increase of 2.2 per cent.
• Expenditure on ‘Pay’ rose from £189.2 billion in 2023-24 to £209.5 billion in 2024-25, an increase of 10.7 per cent.

7. Local government financing and expenditure

Chapter 7 analyses central government support for local government within budgets (tables 7.1 to 7.3) and local government expenditure on services (tables 7.4 to 7.8). It deals primarily with Great Britain, as most equivalent spending in Northern Ireland is central government spending carried out by Northern Ireland departments.

7.1 Central government support for Local government

• Total central government support in DEL was £90.0 billion in 2024-25, up from £86.5 billion the year before. Support in AME rose from £50.3 billion to £52.1 billion over the same period.
• Capital support for local government fell from £15.4 billion in 2023-24 to £13.5 billion in 2024-25.

7.2 Local government expenditure on services

• Total local government current expenditure on services was £170.0 billion in 2024-25, up from £166.8 billion in 2023-24. Over the same period total local government capital expenditure on services rose from £23.1 billion to £24.0 billion.
• Local government current expenditure rose in 2024-25 for six of the ten functions. The three largest increases were seen in ‘Education’ (up £1.9 billion), ‘Public order and safety’ (up £1.0 billion), and ‘Social protection’ (up £0.6 billion).
• A breakdown of local government expenditure by economic category is shown in table 7.8. Spending on pay, which amounted to £78.9 billion in 2024-25, accounts for over 40 per cent of all spending on services by local government.

8. Public corporations

Chapter 8 analyses the impact of public corporations on departmental budgets and expenditure on services.
Tables 8.1 and 8.2 examine the impact on departmental budgets (DEL and departmental AME), breaking this down by economic category and departmental group.

Tables 8.3 to 8.5 analyse capital spending by public corporations. They break the expenditure down by individual public corporations as well as by function and economic category. Debt interest payments to the private sector, which is the only public corporation current spending that forms part of Total Managed Expenditure (TME), is also included.

• Public corporations’ capital expenditure was £15.1 billion in 2024-25, up from £14.9 billion the year before.
• Out of this total, expenditure by the Housing Revenue Account (for England, Scotland and Wales) was £8.7 billion, up from £8.3 billion the previous year.
• The other main contributors to public corporations’ capital expenditure were London Underground (as Transport Trading Limited) and Scottish Water.

9. Public expenditure by country and additional information

9.1 Country and regional analysis in this release

The Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) is published each autumn. As a result there are no new substantive data on regional spending for this PSS release. However, the four headline tables of the CRA release published in November 2024 have been included in chapter 9.

10. Revisions in this release

All of the data contained in the Public Spending National Statistics are open for revision in every publication. The table below summarises the key revisions in this release.

Revisions to Budgets since July 2024 (£³¾¾±±ô±ô¾±´Ç²Ô)	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Total Managed Expenditure	-47	-3,515	3,625	12,225
Total Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL)	21	43	223	-122
Departmental Annually Managed Expenditure (AME)	0	0	-1,012	5,715
Other AME	-68	-3,558	4,414	6,633
Total resource DEL	24	50	113	1,238
Total capital DEL	0	0	125	-56

Figures for Total Managed Expenditure (TME) are taken from the ONS/HM Treasury Public Sector Finances release. The main revisions since last July’s publication are:

• Changes to TME and other AME in all years are due to updated ONS data from the May 2025 release. More information about these changes is available in the monthly ONS release.
• The upward revision for 2023-24 departmental AME is largely a result of nuclear decommissioning expenditure revised by DESNZ.
• The downward revision for 2022-23 departmental AME is largely a result of revision to Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) expenditure by DBT.
• The upward revision for 2023-24 total resource DEL is largely a result of depreciation costs for National Highways revised by DfT.
• Local government expenditure has also been revised.

11. GDP deflators and population numbers

11.1 GDP deflators

A number of the tables in this publication give figures in real terms. Real terms figures are the current price outturns or plans adjusted to a constant price level by excluding the effect of general inflation as measured by the GDP deflator at market prices. The real terms figures in this publication are given in 2024-25 prices. The GDP deflators used in this publication are those given below. The most up to date deflators can be found on the ÌìÃÀÓ°Ôº website.

Financial year	GDP deflator at market prices	per cent change on previous year	Money GDP (£³¾¾±±ô±ô¾±´Ç²Ô)
1982-83	26.919	7.37	327,449
1983-84	28.201	4.76	358,062
1984-85	29.848	5.84	385,979
1985-86	31.473	5.44	423,724
1986-87	32.748	4.05	455,183
1987-88	34.655	5.82	511,512
1988-89	37.015	6.81	570,330
1989-90	40.003	8.07	629,559
1990-91	43.362	8.40	679,270
1991-92	45.977	6.03	714,363
1992-93	47.246	2.76	738,807
1993-94	48.593	2.85	780,640
1994-95	49.397	1.65	820,882
1995-96	50.962	3.17	863,062
1996-97	52.691	3.39	923,000
1997-98	52.686	-0.01	964,683
1998-99	53.413	1.38	1,010,045
1999-00	54.118	1.32	1,058,018
2000-01	54.651	0.98	1,114,688
2001-02	55.604	1.74	1,152,363
2002-03	56.850	2.24	1,208,863
2003-04	58.136	2.26	1,272,602
2004-05	59.877	2.99	1,342,153
2005-06	61.512	2.73	1,418,417
2006-07	63.166	2.69	1,486,254
2007-08	64.698	2.42	1,565,823
2008-09	67.038	3.62	1,582,979
2009-10	67.940	1.35	1,557,029
2010-11	69.226	1.89	1,627,823
2011-12	70.450	1.77	1,673,243
2012-13	71.751	1.85	1,725,339
2013-14	73.122	1.91	1,803,854
2014-15	74.016	1.22	1,875,402
2015-16	74.547	0.72	1,932,100
2016-17	76.231	2.26	2,013,606
2017-18	77.430	1.57	2,098,809
2018-19	79.061	2.11	2,173,666
2019-20	80.934	2.37	2,241,804
2020-21	85.277	5.37	2,087,400
2021-22	84.779	-0.58	2,356,883
2022-23	90.759	7.05	2,583,155
2023-24	96.091	5.87	2,746,574
2024-25	100.000	4.07	2,895,087

^{Data are based on the June 2025 National Accounts figures from ONS.}

Please note that these deflators do not apply to the real terms Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) tables 9.3 and 9.4 that were originally published in November 2024.

11.2 Population numbers by country and region

The population numbers used in Chapter 9 are derived from ONS’s mid-year estimates as used in the November 2024 Country and Regional Analysis release.

ONS’s for the UK are directly available online.

12. Future development of Public Spending Statistics

For future releases of PESA and PSS, a review will be conducted on the content and tables included within the publication. This could result in the removal of a small number of tables which are potentially less relevant than when they were introduced. The underlying data will still be published by HM Treasury as part of transparency releases, therefore data will still ultimately be available to users. If you’d like to provide feedback on PESA and PSS, or potential changes, please contact us at pesa.document@hmtreasury.gov.uk.

The July PSS release now includes an underlying dataset containing budgeting data, which was first published alongside July PSS 2024. The development of this publication was first announced within the July 2023 PSS release, based on feedback from a user consultation. The purpose of this database is to allow users to access underlying data to align to the departmental totals within PESA chapter 1 and chapter 2 for outturn years. More information about the fields within the database is available in the ‘Metadata’ sheet.

We would be interested in readers’ views on how PSS might be developed to further increase its value to users. Please write to:

The Editor, PESA
Government Financial Reporting
Floor 2 Red Zone
HM Treasury
1 Horse Guards Road
London
SW1A 2HQ

pesa@hmtreasury.gov.uk