Committee publication · Correspondence · 20 March 2025
Letter to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade relating to Spending Review, 7 February 2025
Summary
The Business and Trade Committee requests the Department for Business and Trade share its Spending Review 25 submission ahead of Spring 2025 publication to enable parliamentary scrutiny. The Committee welcomes improved fiscal transparency but requires detailed departmental information on funding pressures, spending priorities, and efficiency plans to hold the Accounting Officer accountable and conduct effective cross-government scrutiny.
Key findings
- Committee requests the full SR25 submission or, alternatively, eight categories of detailed information including Resource and Capital DEL figures, policy priorities, spending commitments, stakeholder engagement, inter-departmental coordination, and efficiency plans.
- Government committed to improved fiscal transparency and Treasury will refer the Spending Review to the House of Commons Treasury Committee under the draft Charter for Budget Responsibility.
- Liaison Committee agreed all Committees would request SR25 information to form evidence base for departmental and cross-government scrutiny.
- Committee acknowledges some submission elements may be sensitive and redactions may be required, but early parliamentary engagement is critical to understand spending decisions and consequences.
- Committee will share departmental responses with the Treasury Committee, Scrutiny Unit, and Liaison Committee to enable coordinated government-wide scrutiny.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Business and Trade Committee, Jonathan Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Chancellor, Treasury, Treasury Committee, Liaison Committee, House of Commons Scrutiny Unit
Notable line
“It is critical that Parliament can engage at an early stage to understand, scrutinise and inform the House of those spending decisions and their wider consequences.”
Key Quotes
“It is critical that Parliament can engage at an early stage to understand, scrutinise and inform the House of those spending decisions and their wider consequences.”
“To conduct scrutiny effectively – and hold the Accounting Officer to account - we need good information to understand the issues facing your department and the plans you have for spending public money in the future.”
“We understand that elements of the submission are sensitive, and that this is an ongoing part of (spending) policy development. As such we would understand that some redactions may be required.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗