Part I: why do we have public expenditure and what do we spend it on? The role of the public sector and public expenditure - Dan Corry What should count as public expenditure? - Sheila Watson Recent history of public spending - Dan Corry and Sean Gray The key public expenditure issues of the future - Yvette Cooper Part II: how much public expenditure should there be? How public expenditure priorities are determined - Geoffrey Hulme What does the public think? - Peter Kellner How public attitudes to expenditure differ - John Hall, Ian Preston and Michael Ridge Finding out what people want from public services - Martin Cave Part III: ensuring we get the best out of public expenditure Controlling public expenditure - David Heald Getting the most out of public expenditure: some micro-appraisal and evaluation issues - Geoff White Public sector pay - Chris Trinder Part IV: allocating public expenditure sensibly Planning, control and the contract state - Peter M. Jackson What difference does resource accounting make? The case of New Zealand - June Pallot and Ian Ball Integrating microeconomic and macroeconomic approaches to public expenditure and its control - John Flemming Part V: improving the machinery of public expenditure The relationship between the treasury and spending departments - Jon Stern The need for a strong treasury, and how to make it work - Nick Monck The spending department perspective - Alan Bailey Watch the wood not the trees: what the treasury should be doing - Pamela Meadows