The Treasury

Global Navigation

Personal tools

Amount

  • Amount is the most obvious constraint placed on an appropriation (s 8 PFA 1989).
  • The amount is the upper limit of the financial authority that Parliament has granted to a Minister to incur expenses or capital expenditure within the scope of the appropriation.
  • The notion of upper limit is important - the amount provides a Minister (and therefore departments/entities acting on the Minister's behalf) authority to spend up to and not beyond the number specified.
  • The amount of an appropriation does not provide the Crown with an obligation to incur any expenses. If it is possible to achieve the purpose of the appropriation for less than the amount attributed to the appropriation then departments/entities should obviously do that.
  • If the amount is exceeded then the expenditure on the appropriation is unlawful. Remedies for unappropriated expenditure are discussed later in this guidance.
Page top