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Publishing business cases for major projects and programmes

Business cases form the basis of UK public spending decisions. They underpin the allocation and approval of billions of pounds of public expenditure and are essential for ensuring this expenditure demonstrates value for money.

At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government committed to increasing the transparency of investment decisions by publishing business cases for major projects and programmes. Greater transparency around investment decisions can support the evaluation of projects and programmes, inform subsequent analysis, and enable better allocation decisions over time. Sharing best practice also helps to build capability, which in turn leads to better outcomes for project delivery and the public.

As of 11 June 2025, all projects and programmes on the Government Major Projects Portfolio are required to publish a Summary Business Case, Full Business Case or Programme Business Case within 4 months of HM Treasury approval. The Treasury has published guidance to support departments in meeting this requirement.

To facilitate transparency and ease the process of ensuring these important documents are made available to the House, I am making a commitment on behalf of Government that all business cases published as a result of this requirement be placed in the House of Commons Library. This commitment will allow departments to meet their obligations to Parliament easily and promptly.

I have also asked the Treasury Officer of Accounts to write to all accounting officers to instruct them to ensure that all relevant business cases are properly deposited. The public will be able to access these documents via GOV.UK or the relevant body’s website.[1]

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-case-publications-collection