Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what the criteria are for payments to be made from the Contingency Fund.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The criteria for access to the Contingencies Fund are set out in the Treasury publication “Supply Estimates: a guidance manual” which can be found on the gov.uk website. The Contingencies Fund enables the Treasury to make repayable cash advances to departments for urgent services, in anticipation of provision for those services being provided by Parliament.

The main criteria against which any application is judged is genuine urgency in the public interest and – in cases of new services – near certainty that any related Bill will become law. However, not all advances are dependent upon the passage of enabling legislation: existing legislation may already exist. Advances are generally made in anticipation of the relevant Supply and Appropriation Act.