Budgeting in the UK is highly transparent: but that does not mean that budget decisions are carefully scrutinized, nor that the right policy judgements are made

The UK has one of the world’s most open and transparent systems for the government to provide financial information to the public. But with the Comprehensive Spending Review set to propose drastic programme changes and cutbacks, Joachim Wehner finds that compared with other advanced countries there is a serious lack of oversight and scrutiny. The results are that Parliament sees only massively under-detailed spending estimates. Far too rapid decision-making often takes place on major budget issues, such as cutbacks, where consequences are often poorly understood, making consensus hard to achieve.