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Series

HM Treasury: Public Services and successors: Financial Management Strategy and Agencies...

Catalogue reference: T 561

What's it about?

T 561

The records concern the strategy and policy concerning next steps agencies, the financial management and the efficiency of government departments, privatisation and running costs.

Full description and record details

Reference
T 561
Title
HM Treasury: Public Services and successors: Financial Management Strategy and Agencies (FMSA prefix): Registered Files
Date
1993
Description

The records concern the strategy and policy concerning next steps agencies, the financial management and the efficiency of government departments, privatisation and running costs.

Arrangement

Records are arranged chronologically and in file prefix order.

Held by
The National Archives, Kew
Former department reference
FMSA prefix
Legal status
Public Record(s)
Language
English
Creator(s)
  • Treasury, Civil Service Management and Pay, 1990-1995
  • Treasury, Financial Management; Public Services, 1985-1989
Physical description
4 file(s)
Access conditions
Open
Immediate source of acquisition

In 2019 Treasury

Custodial history
The records were stored with the Treasury at 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1, to 1999. Thereafter the records were stored by a third party contractor prior to their transfer to The National Archives.
Accumulation dates
1993 to 1997
Accruals
No further accruals are anticipated.
Selection and destruction information
RCP - s.3.1.1 - Government's management of the UK economy.
Administrative / biographical background

The records were created by the Civil Service Management and Pay (sector), Management Policy and Running Costs Group, Financial Management Division. The function of this Division was the strategy for financial management in government departments and the creation of Next Steps Agencies; separate agencies created to carry out the executive functions of government within a policy and resource framework set by a department. The Next Steps strategy was advanced on a key government aim to reduce waste and make government more efficient. Each Next Steps Agency's Chief Executive Officer would have their respective function's daily responsibilities delegated to them by the sponsoring department's Minister to be run independently from the department but answerable to it.

The origins of the work of the Financial Management Division lie as far back as 1986 and the creation of the 'Financial Management: Public Services (sector)' where the issue of running costs started to be treated as a separate area of interest to the Treasury. Running costs concerned the administrative spending by central government and the costs of wages and salaries of officials employed in the Whitehall departments. From 1986 the Treasury introduced a separate control regime for running costs, delineating such spending from wider programmes, involving goods and services and capital expenditure aimed at achieving the policy goals of a department. Through the analysis of running costs came the necessity of efficiency and proper financial management in government as a policy aim in itself. The creation of Next Step Agencies in the 1990s was just such a scheme to ensure that government functions could be carried out as efficiently and inexpensively as possible.

Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C14203285/

Catalogue hierarchy

Over 27 million records

This record is held at The National Archives, Kew

325,062 records

Within the department: T

Records created or inherited by HM Treasury

You are currently looking at the series: T 561

HM Treasury: Public Services and successors: Financial Management Strategy and Agencies (FMSA prefix): Registered Files