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Treasury;Office for National Statistics

Answer

Mr. Cash: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what basis the Office for National Statistics defines current spending for repairs and maintenance on roads as capital expenditure. [222370] Mr. Timms: [holding answer 17 March 2005]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply. Letter from Len Cook to Mr. William Cash, dated 24 March 2005: As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking on what basis the Office for National Statistics (ONS) defines current spending for repairs and maintenance of roads as capital expenditure. (222370) ONS classifies all current spending for repairs and maintenance of roads as current expenditure and none as capital expenditure. The basis for classifying ordinary maintenance and repairs as current expenditure is from the 1995 European System of Accounts, paragraph 3.108. ONS found that it had incorrectly used a combination of two approaches for recording road maintenance expenditure in the public sector current budget, resulting in double counting. This has now been corrected. This correction was initially, on 18 February, described as a reclassification from current to capital expenditure. However, in a News Release of 28 February, accompanying a technical note of the revision it was pointed out that the revision was most easily explained as removing depreciation from both the current budget and net investment. It was not a conceptual reclassification of repair and maintenance expenditure.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c947W; 222370

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Accountancy Expenditure Office for National Statistics Statistics Roads Repairs and maintenance

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk