A Spending Review is a process used by government to evaluate and prioritise departmental expenditure with intent to ensure financial sustainability, align public spending with national strategy, and (very often in recent history) respond to budget constraints.
Typically, a Spending Review sets the spending envelope for government departments for multiple years, and annual fiscal events assess expenditure and firm-up the department budget for each year within the Spending Review period.
If this is already sounding complicated, that’s because it is – and this approach can lead to difficult-to-navigate cliff-edges.
The 2021 Spending Review was a good example of this. A three-year Spending Review that left us in the dark about what the funding year 2025/26 would look like right up until October 30, 2024!
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