Final Report of the 2020 Green Book Review
Budget 2020 announced that the government would review the Green Book to make sure that it did not hinder the levelling up agenda. This report marks the conclusion of the review.
Green Book Review 2020: Findings and response
Ref: ISBN 978-1-5286-2273-8 , PU 3052, CP 331PDF, 290KB, 29 pages
Budget 2020 announced that the government would take action “to review the Green Book, which sets out how decisions on major investment programmes are appraised in order to make sure that government investment spreads opportunity across the UK.” The Green Book is the government’s guidance on options appraisal and applies to all proposals that concern public spending, taxation, changes to regulations, and changes to the use of existing public assets and resources. It is vital for designing proposals that both achieve government policy objectives and deliver social value.
The review has concluded that current appraisal practice is likely to undermine the government’s ambition to “level up” poorer regions and to achieve other strategic objectives unless there is a step change improvement. This document sets out the detailed finding of that review and the action the government will take to address them.
HM Treasury guidance on how to appraise and evaluate policies, projects and programmes.
Documents
The Green Book (2020)
PDF, 2.89MB, 152 pages
Business case guidance for projects
PDF, 1.82MB, 134 pages
Business case guidance for programmes
PDF, 1.22MB, 111 pages
Agile digital and IT projects: clarification of business case guidance
HTML
Details
The Green Book is guidance issued by HM Treasury on how to appraise policies, programmes and projects. It also provides guidance on the design and use of monitoring and evaluation before, during and after implementation.
Previous editions of the Green Book
The previous 2003 edition of Green Book guidance is now withdrawn. For purposes of academic study and public information it may be found on the National Archives website.
Published 18 April 2013
Last updated 25 November 2020 + show all updates
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Updated with The Green Book 2020.
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Reduced content on page.
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Updated with ‘Infrastructure Business Case: International Guidance, Infrastructure Business Case: International Guidance Annexes and Infrastructure Business Case: International Case Study’.
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Added Business Case Templates documents to the page
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Updated with revised version of ‘Access to training and accreditation in best practice business cases’.
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Replaced ‘Public sector business cases using five case model: guidance’ with ‘Business case guidance for programmes’, ‘Business case guidance for projects’, ‘Business case guidance for programmes (International version)’ and ‘Business case guidance for projects (International version)’.
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New version of the Green Book published, as well as accompanying academic paper.
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Link to new guidance on Treasury approvals for programmes and projects added.
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Updated better business cases guidance published
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updated ‘Access to training and accreditation in best practice business cases’ publication
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Public sector business cases using the five case model: templates file (.doc) replaced (with (.odt)
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‘Agile digital and IT projects: clarification of business case guidance’ published
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Updated guidance on public sector business cases using the ‘five case model’ published
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First published.
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