23 March 2007
Gordon Brown has been accused of 'sneaking out' the news that the Comprehensive Spending Review will be delayed until the autumn and of trying to 'close down' a public debate over its conclusions.
David Gauke, a member of the influential Treasury select committee, told Public Finance that Brown's decision would leave little time for effective scrutiny, even though the CSR is supposed to determine government priorities for the next ten years.
'It will close down the public debate over the CSR, which needs to take place both inside Parliament and outside. There needs to be sufficient time for proper parliamentary scrutiny,' Gauke told PF.
'This is going to be a tight Spending Review and I think he would rather move to Number 10 first, and let his new chancellor take the rap,' Gauke said. 'But it will cause administrative difficulties for departments, who will have very little notice of their settlement, at least for the first year of the next spending period.'
The delay, briefly revealed by Brown during his Budget statement, means the CSR will not be published until Parliament returns after the summer recess. This will drastically reduce the time between publication and implementation, thereby limiting opportunities for parliamentary oversight of the spending allocations to Whitehall departments.
Just last month the committee expressed concern at rumours the CSR would be delayed and asked Stephen Timms, the chief secretary to the Treasury, to confirm it would be published before the summer recess. But Timms would say only that it would be published 'by October'.
Instead, the committee's fears were realised when Brown made a glancing reference to the delay while updating MPs on a series of cross-cutting policy reviews that will feed into the CSR.
'With interdepartmental reviews … all nearing completion, we will now - in advance of the final public expenditure allocations which will be published in the autumn - set in place a national regional and local consultation to discuss and debate issues which arise from the work already underway,' he said.
PFmar2007
