Treasury Instructions 2024

1  Introduction to Treasury Instructions#

1.1  General#

This document comprises:

1. a summary of the relevant provisions of the Public Finance Act 1989 (the Act)
2. a set of instructions in bold to be known as Treasury Instructions (the Treasury Instructions), and
3. some guidance on the Instructions and the provisions of the Act.

The Treasury Instructions are issued under the authority of section 80 of the Act and are to be read in conjunction with the Act (all terms have the same meaning as in section 2 of the Act).

1.2  Date of issue#

The Treasury Instructions contained within this document were issued in August 2024 and apply effective from the financial year commencing 1 July 2024. All previous Treasury Instructions applying to departments are hereby revoked.

1.3  Application of Treasury Instructions#

The Treasury Instructions apply, subject to the provisions of the Act and of any regulations made under the Act, to all departments as defined in the Act and the Chief Executives must comply with these instructions.

Note that the term 'departments' as defined in the Act includes departmental agencies, interdepartmental executive boards and interdepartmental ventures. While generally the same requirements in the Act for departments apply to these entities, there is some variation in the accountability arrangements (including whether the entity needs to prepare financial statements) and financial powers to reflect that not all of these entities may either be empowered to or in fact manage assets and liabilities. Where the instructions relate to the different requirements for these entities this is indicated in footnotes to the relevant text.

1.4  Purpose of Treasury Instructions#

Treasury Instructions are issued to departments under section 80(1) of the Act for the purpose of:

• requiring information to be supplied to the Treasury by departments to enable the Treasury to fulfil properly the functions imposed upon it by the Government or any Act
• prescribing the processes and data standards to be used when supplying the information required
• prescribing particular accounting policies and financial statement representations that departments must apply in their financial reporting
• prescribing the terms and conditions that must apply to the guarantees or indemnities that may be given by departments on behalf of the Crown under section 65ZE of the Act
• prescribing any other matters relating to the guarantees or indemnities that may be given by departments on behalf of the Crown under section 65ZE of the Act
• regulating the collection, receipt, custody, issue, expenditure, control and management of public money or trust money
• regulating the accounting and financial management and control procedures relating to contracts of the Crown, and
• regulating the custody and control by the Crown of public securities and securities representing the investment of public money; and providing for the appointment of custodians of such securities and prescribing their functions, duties and powers.