16 January 2003

Green Book, Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government

The Government is committed to continuing improvement in the delivery of public services. A major part of this is ensuring that public funds are spent on activities that provide the greatest benefits to society, and that they are spent in the most efficient way.

The Treasury has, for many years, provided guidance to other public sector bodies on how proposals should be appraised, before significant funds are committed – and how past and present activities should be evaluated. This new edition of the Green Book, Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government, incorporates revised guidance, to encourage a more thorough, long-term and analytically robust approach to appraisal and evaluation. It is relevant to all appraisals and evaluations.

Supplementary guidance, and a comprehensive slide pack is also available, as shown below.

To order this book, visit the  TSO web site . 

To see the online version of the Green Book, Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government visit the Green Book micro site.

The documents are also available below in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the  Adobe website .

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For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the  HM Treasury accessibility page .

Internal links

The new Green Book (2003 edition) Greenbook Microsite  PDF file of Chapters 1 to 7 (242Kb)   PDF file of Annexes (229Kb)

PDF file of comprehensive slide pack (50Kb) , including speaking notes, on the new Green Book, explaining the overarching methodology, and the main changes from the 1997 edition

PDF file of Supplementary guidance on the treatment of optimism bias (100Kb)  

Also related is the Mott MacDonald report on the same issue,  PDF file of Review of Large Public Procurement in the UK (339Kb) , July 2002

PDF file of Supplementary guidance on the taxation of PFI, and the Public Sector Comparator (46Kb)

Also related is a report by KPMG on the same issue,  PDF file of Report on identifying and meauring the differential tax receipts from Private Finance Initiative schemes for the purpose of economic evaluation against a Public Sector Comparator (141Kb) , July 2002

Supplementary guidance on the transition arrangements that will apply

PDF file of links to selected departmental guidance (17Kb)
Text file of links to selected departmental guidance

Comments and questions on the Green Book can be sent to greenbook@hm-treasury.gov.uk

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