ACCOUNTABILITY, CONTROL AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE CIVIL APPROPRIATION ACCOUNTS 1870 ? 1980: A HISTORICAL NOTE

Empirical evidence is presented of trends in vote and subhead size in the UK Civil Appropriation Accounts during the period 1870-1980. The basic framework (the macro-structure) within which both the budget and the outturn statements are constructed has remained unusually stable since the system was...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Financial accountability & management 1987-04, Vol.3 (1), p.1-7
Main Author: Rutherford, B A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Budgets
Control
Government spending
Statistical analysis
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Empirical evidence is presented of trends in vote and subhead size in the UK Civil Appropriation Accounts during the period 1870-1980. The basic framework (the macro-structure) within which both the budget and the outturn statements are constructed has remained unusually stable since the system was introduced in 1866. The basic unit is the vote. The total amount of a vote generally is broken down into sections and subheads; votes are then subdivided into classes. The number and ambit of the individual votes varies considerably from year to year. This micro-structure is designed largely by the Treasury. It appears that, while expenditure has expanded greatly over the study period (a 363-fold increase in real terms), the increases in the number of votes and subheads have been much more modest. The number of votes rose only 27% and the number of subheads 74%. There seems to have been a massive decline in both accountability and control over the years, with the decrease in control being more substantial than that in accountability.
ISSN:0267-4424
1468-0408
DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0408.1987.tb00043.x