Public Spending
Government expenditure and austerity
Based on 9 parliamentary votes
Related Economy Issues
How Parties Voted on Public Spending
Government alignment shows how often each party voted with the government's stated position. Issue-aligned direction shows agreement with the AI-identified supportive stance.
Voted with government positionVoted in issue-aligned direction
Recent Votes
| Vote | Result | Date |
|---|---|---|
MPs voted on an opposition motion censuring the conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Opposition Day motions like this are typically used by opposition parties to embarrass the government and put its MPs on record defending or condemning a minister's behaviour. Yes = Support the motion criticising the Chancellor's conduct, signalling concern or lack of confidence in her handling of her role · No = Reject the motion, defending the Chancellor's conduct and opposing the opposition's attempt to censure her Govt: No | 92-296 | 10 Dec 2025 |
The Commons voted to reject a Lords amendment (Amendment 43) to the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill. The Lords amendment included a provision requiring the independent reviewer of the Eligibility Verification Measure to explicitly state in every report whether they had received all the material they needed; the government argued this was unnecessary because it had already legislated to require the Secretary of State to provide all reasonably required material to the reviewer. Yes = Support the government's rejection of the Lords requirement for the independent reviewer to include a statement in every report confirming they received all necessary material, on the basis that existing safeguards already ensure this · No = Support the Lords amendment's additional transparency safeguard requiring the independent reviewer to explicitly confirm in each report whether they received all material needed, as a check on government compliance Govt: Aye | 268-82 | 5 Nov 2025 |
Vote on New Clause 21, a Conservative amendment to the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill at Report Stage. Based on the debate, this was one of several opposition amendments seeking to add safeguards and fairness provisions to the Bill's fraud and error recovery powers, with Conservative MPs arguing their amendments would enhance rather than undermine the legislation. Yes = Support adding Conservative-proposed safeguards and proportionality measures to the fraud and error recovery powers in the Bill · No = Oppose the Conservative amendments, preferring the Government's version of the Bill without additional opposition-drafted constraints on recovery powers Govt: No | 97-258 | 29 Apr 2025 |
Vote on whether to pause the government's new debt recovery powers against people who received Carer's Allowance overpayments until an independent review of how those overpayments occurred has been completed. This matters because many carers received overpayments through no clear fault of their own and face significant debts. Yes = Support delaying use of recovery powers against Carer's Allowance recipients until an independent review is conducted, protecting vulnerable carers from enforcement action · No = Oppose the delay, preferring to proceed with the Bill's recovery powers without waiting for an independent review of Carer's Allowance overpayments Govt: No | 75-254 | 29 Apr 2025 |
Vote on whether to restrict a new government power to share benefit claimants' financial data with banks and other private organisations, so that it could only be used when there is already a specific suspicion of fraud. Supporters argued the unrestricted power treats all claimants as suspects and risks wrongly flagging thousands of innocent people through algorithmic errors; the government opposed the restriction, saying the broader power is needed to detect overpayments and errors before any suspicion arises. Yes = Support limiting the eligibility verification power to cases where fraud is already suspected, protecting benefit claimants from being treated as automatic suspects · No = Oppose the restriction, backing the government's broader data-sharing power to detect benefit overpayments and errors at an early stage without needing prior suspicion of fraud Govt: No | 88-240 | 29 Apr 2025 |
Vote on New Clause 10, an opposition proposal to add new debt recovery powers to the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill. The government opposed it, arguing existing legislation and Clause 16 of the Bill already provide equivalent civil court recovery powers for the DWP and the Public Sector Fraud Authority. Yes = Support adding a new specific debt recovery mechanism to the Bill, arguing it would strengthen the government's ability to reclaim money from those who refuse to pay despite having means · No = Oppose the new clause as unnecessary, on the grounds that existing DWP legislation and Clause 16 of the Bill already provide sufficient and equivalent civil recovery powers Govt: No | 103-259 | 29 Apr 2025 |
MPs voted on whether to pass the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill at its Second Reading. The Bill aims to crack down on fraud against public funds — including benefit fraud estimated at £7.4 billion a year — by giving authorities new powers to investigate and recover money, though critics raised concerns about protecting genuinely disabled claimants from wrongful targeting. Yes = Support the Bill's measures to tackle fraud against the public purse, including benefit fraud by criminal gangs and individuals, as well as fraud by companies abusing public contracts · No = Oppose the Bill, citing concerns that new investigatory powers could disproportionately target vulnerable and genuinely disabled claimants, causing harm and anxiety to innocent people Govt: Aye | 343-89 | 3 Feb 2025 |
Vote on whether to require the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to automatically produce a financial assessment whenever the government changes its fiscal rules (spending and borrowing targets), not just when major unfunded spending commitments are announced. The amendment aimed to extend the 'fiscal lock' in the Budget Responsibility Bill to cover changes to fiscal targets. Yes = Support requiring the OBR to independently scrutinise any changes to the government's fiscal rules, ensuring greater transparency and accountability when ministers alter their own borrowing and spending targets · No = Oppose extending the OBR assessment trigger to cover fiscal rule changes, backing the government's narrower version of the Bill which focuses on unfunded spending commitments Govt: No | 111-366 | 4 Sept 2024 |
Vote on whether to allow the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to report potential breaches of the ministerial code to the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests if a government fails to request an OBR assessment before a major fiscal event. This was prompted by the 2022 mini-Budget, when the OBR was sidelined, and aims to add accountability so such conduct cannot be ignored. Yes = Support giving the OBR power to flag potential ministerial code violations to the Independent Adviser, strengthening accountability for governments that bypass fiscal scrutiny · No = Oppose the amendment, with the government arguing the Bill already provides sufficient accountability and the additional mechanism is unnecessary Govt: No | 75-364 | 4 Sept 2024 |
How is this calculated?
Government alignment (primary bar) shows how often a party's MPs voted with the government's stated position on this issue. This is the most comparable metric across parties, as it measures the same reference point for everyone.
Issue-aligned direction (secondary bar) shows how often MPs voted in the direction tagged as supportive of this issue by AI analysis. For example, if a vote is tagged “pro-environment”, a Yes vote counts as aligned. This can be misleading when the tagged direction happens to align with opposition amendments rather than government bills.
Why these metrics may differ: Opposition parties often vote against government bills for strategic or procedural reasons, even when they broadly support the policy area. The government alignment metric makes this clearer by showing the actual voting pattern against a consistent reference.
Source: Commons division data from the UK Parliament Votes API. Alignment direction determined by AI analysis of vote stance tags. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.