This snapshot taken on 01/03/2005, shows web content selected for preservation by The National Archives. External links, forms and search boxes may not work in archived websites.

Need help?

This page contains information and guidance to help visitors when using this site.

We are continually working to improve the accessibility and usability of our content but if you are experiencing any difficulties downloading files or accessing a particular page please contact the HM Treasury web team for assistance.

Site audience and purpose
 Frequently Asked Questions
Navigation
Searching
Accessibility
Viewing pages
How to view PDF files
File formats
Printing
Saving pages
Saving documents
Ordering hard copies
Abbreviations and acronyms
Problem reporting
Useful Links

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Site audience and purpose
The Treasury website contains more than 3,000 documents, from press releases, to consultation documents to budget reports and spending reviews. This site is intended to cover the information needs of different potential audiences - the general public, journalists, academics, economists, businesses, schoolchildren, students, teachers and so on. It is structured to present simple information first, with an indication of more detail further into the site.

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Navigation
The site has two key areas of navigation. Across the top of the page is the utility navigation leading to the  Help section, Contact us, Access keys ,  Site Map,  and Search . The left hand primary navigation contains links to This navigation also contains links to Newsroom and Speeches, Consultations and legislation,  and the Economic data and tools area which are regularly updated with the latest news, publications and statistics. Beneath these links are the 'Policy Areas' of the website, which contains detailed information and policy documents published by the Treasury on a range of categories reflecting the breadth of our work. Under the Policy Areas there are links to the Budget, Pre Budget, andSpending Review sections.

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Searching
You can search the site by using the Search button at the top right hand corner. Please enter the word or words to look for in the box, then start the search by pressing 'Go'. You can then search specific sections by choosing from the drop down menu on the Search Results page.

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Accessibility
This web site follows the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

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Viewing pages
This website is designed to display best with your monitor set at screen resolution 800 x 600 pixels, but will generally display without difficulty at 640 x 480 pixels.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used to set the colour and size of the text within each page.
Unvisited links are and in red
Visited links are in dark grey
To override these settings and alter the format of the text colour and size

Text size can be increased in MS Explorer by selecting from the top menu View - Text Size, and then selecting Larger or Largest. For more information visit the Microsoft help and support site

A users style sheet can be inserted in MS Explorer by selecting Tools - Internet Options - Accessibility
For more information visit the Microsoft help and support site

in Netscape by selecting Edit - Preferences - Appearance - Fonts
For more information visit Netscape browser central

Browser upgrades
HM Treasury endeavours to make its website compatible with all browsers. However, if you are using an older browser (a level 4.0 browser for instance), you may see inconsistencies in the presentation of pages.
It may help you to download a newer version of a browser to improve your general Internet experience.
The following are available to download for free:
>  Netscape
>  Microsoft Internet Explorer

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File formats

HTML
HTML is the basic file format used on the Internet, this page is in HTML format. It is our policy to make as much information as possible in this format. Some times, for technical reasons, some data may be made available in the following alternative formats.

.DOC
.DOC is the file type for documents created using Microsoft WORD. This is a widely used word processing package. Microsoft Word (.doc) documents can be opened by many but not all programs. If you are unable to open a document it could be that you do not have the appropriate software in which case you may download a viewer from the Microsoft site for free if you are a PC user.

.XLS
.XLS is the file type for documents created using Microsoft EXCEL. This is a widely used spreadsheet package. Microsoft Excel (.exl) documents can be opened by many but not all programs. If you are unable to open a document it could be that you do not have the appropriate software in which case you may download a viewer from the Microsoft site for free if you are a PC user.

.CSV
.CSV stands for Comma Separated Values and is the spreadsheet equivalent of .txt for word processors. You can cut and paste a CSV file into the spreadsheet of your choice, or download to your PC.

.TXT
.txt files are an alternative text file to Word. They can be opened by a much wider number of text editors on PCs and Macintoshes. A disadvantage of these files is that they take longer to download for multi-page documents.

.PDF Adobe Acrobat Reader
Documents marked .PDF are saved in Portable Document Format. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view all PDF files. The Acrobat Reader software is available for downloading free of charge from the Adobe website. The free Reader allows you to view, navigate, and print PDF files across all major computing platforms. For more information on how to download the Reader, go to our Adobe Acrobat help page.

Adobe's accessibility website is full of information on the features and capabilities of Adobe products that enhance electronic document accessibility for people with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, and motor impairments..

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Printing pages
To print out pages from the website click 'File' from your browser menu bar and then 'Print'.
If you find that the last words of the text lines on the page are missing on the printout then click 'File' and then 'Page Setup' and change all your print margins to zero.

 If you have trouble printing pages from within Acrobat Reader then visit Adobe's Acrobat Technical Guides

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Saving pages
Any page can be saved from this site to your local drive. Select File then Save from the menu option.

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Saving documents
Some of our documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF) or MS Word/Excel format. Depending on your browser setup, clicking on the link may open the document in the browser window. With large files, a delay can give the impression that the document is not downloading.
If you prefer to save the document directly to your hard drive: PC users - right-click on the link, and then select the save option.
Apple Mac users - point to the link and hold down the mouse button, and then select the save option.

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Hard copies of Treasury publications
Hard copy publications produced by the Treasury can, subject to availability, be ordered from the Public Enquiry Unit: public.enquiries@hm-treasury.gov.uk

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Abbreviations and acronyms
>  Glossary of HM Treasury abbreviations and acronyms

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Problem reporting
If you have any problems using this web site - broken links, difficulty finding documents, requests to link to us etc - please email the web team. The web team will try to reply to all such queries within 48 hours though it may take longer at busy times.

Useful links

>  UK Government Disability Site - Contains full information about the Disabilities Discrimination Act, parts of which apply to the Web as from 1st October 1999.
>  RNIB - The RNIB is there to help not only totally blind people, but also the one and a half million in the UK with serious sight problems.