Running government: the Cabinet Office, Treasury, HMRC, Parliament and the Sovereign Grant

Over the longest run published: cash, real terms and per head

Source: HM Treasury, PESA 2026: chapter 1, 5 and 10 tables and annex C, published 16 July 2026; HM Treasury, PESA 2021: chapter 1, 5 and 10 tables, published 20 July 2021; HM Treasury, PESA 2016: chapter 1, 5 and 10 tables, published 21 July 2016; HM Treasury, PESA 2011: chapter 1, 5 and 10 tables, published 13 July 2011.

What the UK figure holds

HM Treasury counts spending on “executive and legislative organs, financial and fiscal affairs, external affairs” together. In 2025-26, £16.0bn of the £19.9bn was running government, Parliament and the tax system, £3.1bn was diplomacy (on the foreign affairs page) and £771m was payments under the EU withdrawal agreement, which HM Treasury has counted here since 2021-22.

The three central departments

Their budgets are small beside the sums they manage. In 2025-26 HMRC’s was £6.7bn against about £966.4bn of tax collected.

Plans, not spending, shown apart from the outturn above.

Before 2011-12 PESA showed HMRC and the Treasury together as “Chancellor’s Departments”: 2006-07 £4.7bn, 2007-08 £4.5bn, 2008-09 £4.6bn, 2009-10 £4.5bn, 2010-11 £4.1bn (total DEL, cash).

Where the money goes, level by level

Search the department's payments over £25,000

Every payment of £25,000 or more the departments published for the latest year, as published. See every department's spending over £25,000 for what each covers.

Cabinet Office

HM Treasury

HM Revenue and Customs

Staff

At 31 March 2026 HMRC employed 71,210 civil servants (75,500 with the Valuation Office Agency), against 90,960 in 2008. The Treasury had 2,140 and the Cabinet Office 5,385; the Cabinet Office’s count moves with the functions it gains and loses.

Source: Cabinet Office, Civil Service Statistics: statistical tables (reconciliation table), published 29 July 2026; Office for National Statistics, Civil Service Statistics 2008 to 2018 (reconciliation table).

HMRC: what collecting tax costs

HMRC collected £966.4 billion in 2025-26 at a cost of 0.51p for each £1. What each tax and benefit costs to collect or pay out is on the cost of collection page.

Staff are HMRC only, not the Valuation Office Agency, as revised in May 2024. Calls handled counts call attempts to 2020-21 and contacts to all helplines from 2021-22.

Source: HM Revenue and Customs, HMRC annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026: historical data series, published 9 July 2026.

Parliament

Westminster cost £1.2bn in 2024-25, including capital. IPSA pays MPs’ salaries and office costs; staff and office costs averaged £275,197 for an MP who served all of 2024-25, and every MP’s costs are on MPs’ pay and expenses.

HM Treasury’s OSCAR outturn database, added up here; it can differ slightly from each house’s own accounts. Capital varies a lot from year to year.

Source: HM Treasury, OSCAR annual outturn data, 2018-19 to 2024-25; Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, MPs’ staffing and business costs: annual publications.

The monarchy: the Sovereign Grant

The grant was £132.1m in 2025-26, 12% of the Crown Estate’s £1,100.7m profit in 2023-24. The formula takes a share of the profit two years earlier, and the grant can never fall. It is £137.9m in 2026-27.

2012-13: The first year of the Sovereign Grant, which was set at £31.0 million for 2012-13; £2.3 million of spending above the grant was drawn from the reserve. 2017-18: From 2017-18 the grant rose from 15% to 25% of Crown Estate profits for ten years, the extra 10% to pay for reservicing Buckingham Palace. 2022-23: 25% of the Crown Estate's 2020-21 profit came to less than the year before, so the grant stayed at £86.3 million: by law it cannot fall. 2024-25: The 2023 review cut the share of Crown Estate profits from 25% to 12%, in light of the expected increase in those profits from new offshore wind developments; 12% of 2022-23's profit was less than £86.3 million, so the grant stayed there. 2026-27: The final year of reservicing money. The Royal Trustees' 2026 review sets the share for 2027-28 onwards. Checked 24 September 2026.

Source: The Royal Household, The Sovereign Grant and Sovereign Grant Reserve annual report and accounts (hand-kept); HM Treasury, Sovereign Grant Act 2011: reports of the Royal Trustees on the Sovereign Grant (hand-kept).

Devolved parliaments and governments

Each nation’s figure in the drill-down is its identifiable spending under the same heading. The running costs below come from the Scottish and Welsh budgets and HM Treasury’s database. Budgets are plans, not spending. Northern Ireland’s Assembly and civil service running costs are not yet here: they are published only in PDF accounts and budget documents.

The Scottish Government’s administration line stopped in 2018-19, when running costs were spread across portfolios; its corporate running costs line starts in 2022-23, so the two are not one series. Core Scottish Government staff and running costs across every portfolio, plus corporate running costs (digital, estates, procurement, finance, legal, HR). Autumn budget revision.

Source: HM Treasury, OSCAR annual outturn data, 2018-19 to 2024-25; Scottish Government, Scottish Budget 2025-26: Scottish Government operating costs, table 1 (hand-kept); Scottish Government, Scottish Budget 2025-26, table C.05 (hand-kept); Scottish Government, Scottish Budget 2025-26: outturn comparison 2015-16 to 2023-24 (hand-kept); Welsh Government, Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: main expenditure group tables (Central Services and Administration) (hand-kept).

Who spends on public and common services

HM Treasury’s wider heading “public and common services” adds general services and research to running government, and leaves out diplomacy and debt interest. The largest part in 2025-26 was Local Government.

What each figure counts