14 July 2000
The overall annual expenditure for each of the next three years was announced in the Budget, but the departmental spending plans for the next three years are still being finalised and ministers are making last-minute bids for the extra billions available.
There will be a £40bn rise in spending by the 2003/04 financial year and on Tuesday the Chancellor will reveal which departments are winners and which are losers.
An announcement was expected a week earlier, but decisions have become bogged down in detailed negotiations between the Treasury, Downing Street and Whitehall departments.
This is in part because, for the first time, the resources allocated will be tied to around 200 targets designed to measure performance and boost service standards.
Under the new system, the government will give more details about the effects of the extra resources and the services they will buy.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn already knows his department will receive an annual 5.6% funding increase for the next three years, and the NHS national plan later this month will set the spending priorities.
Other areas set to benefit include education, which could get up to £10bn extra, transport, law and order and regeneration initiatives.
Much of the extra money will be ploughed into the 13 cross-cutting schemes designed to encourage 'joined-up' government. These include welfare to work, the Sure Start scheme, rural programmes and overseas aid.
PFjul2000
