Department for Education: Public Expenditure
(asked on 10th February 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023, updated 11 October 2024, why the Department for Education’s total grant expenditure recorded in its Annual Report and Accounts for 2022–23, differs from the £77.9 billion reported; what the total value of this discrepancy is; and whether this missing expenditure is accounted for elsewhere in government spending records.
The policy funding note outlines resource and capital expenditure to support the department’s objectives, including both grant funding and non-reported expenditures (for example, contract spend and grant-in-aid). The policy funding note was published in section 5 of the ‘Department for Education consolidated annual report and accounts 2023’, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64b6978861adff001301b284/Department_for_Education_Consolidated_annual_report_and_accounts_2023.pdf.
The data in the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’ has also been prepared on a resource expenditure basis, using the source data in ‘DfE consolidated annual report and accounts 2023’, section 5. Further adjustments were then made to meet the reporting requirements for the Government Grants Information System (GGIS). GGIS is the source of the data published in the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022/23’.
Reporting Source | 2022-23 Financial Year | GGIS Completion Rate |
| £ billion | % |
Policy Funding Note, DfE 2022-23 Annual Report and Accounts | £81.6 |
|
Adjustments for grant-in-aid; contracts; and other expenditure identified as goods and/or services in support of grant policy funding outcomes | (£2.5) |
|
Total adjusted grant expenditure | £79.1 | 100% |
Grant Scheme level reporting included in the Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023 | £77.9 | 98% |
|
|
|
Difference in reported value | (£3.7) |
|
The total value of grant expenditure consistent with the definition of the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’ is £79.1 billion.
However, as set out in section 8 of the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’, ‘Departmental statements about the data in this report’, the total value of expenditure within the bulletin is £77.9 billon. This represents 98% of the department’s total grant expenditure. Section 8 of the bulletin can be found in full here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/government-grants-statistics-2022-to-2023/grants-statistics-bulletin-2022-to-2023#departmental-statements-about-the-data-in-this-report.
The 98% completion rate reflects the disproportionate use of resources that would be required to further augment the remaining 2% of expenditure with the additional level of supplementary information required for entry on the GGIS, and therefore inclusion in the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’.
The department confirms that there is no missing and/or unaccounted for expenditure. The difference between the ‘Department for Education consolidated annual report and accounts’ and the value included in the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’ is the basis of preparation for these two publications.