IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/pubmmg/v45y2025i6p550-564.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The under-realized potential usefulness of the UK Whole of Government Accounts

Author

Listed:
  • Lynn Bradley
  • David Heald
  • Ron Hodges

Abstract

After 12 years of publication, the UK Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) is shown to be a qualified success. Compared with statistical accounting, the WGA delivers greater comprehensiveness (improved fiscal transparency) and exhibits less vulnerability to creative accounting (the perimeter is less porous). Combined with fiscal sustainability projections, the WGA highlights the fragility of UK public finances even before the Covid 19 and cost-of-living shocks. Future usefulness will depend on how effectively intermediate users can penetrate the policy domain and whether WGA production can be speeded up. The four modes of government accounting (government financial reporting, statistical accounting, budgeting and fiscal sustainability projections) provide improved information. Though tempting for hard-pressed political decision-makers claiming ‘to do good by stealth’, manipulations will undermine fiscal transparency and are likely to damage fiscal sustainability. This analysis of UK WGA shows how the modes interact, but will remain separate as they have different rationales, measurements and audiences.

Suggested Citation

  • Lynn Bradley & David Heald & Ron Hodges, 2025. "The under-realized potential usefulness of the UK Whole of Government Accounts," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(6), pages 550-564, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:pubmmg:v:45:y:2025:i:6:p:550-564
    DOI: 10.1080/09540962.2023.2272055
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09540962.2023.2272055
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09540962.2023.2272055?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:pubmmg:v:45:y:2025:i:6:p:550-564. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPMM20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.