| Financial Issues Advisory Group Report |
| ANNEX A |
| GLOSSARY OF TERMS |
| Note: Those terms in bold text are recommended to take the place of existing Westminster terms. Where this is the case, the existing Westminster term is given. |
| Term | Definition | Westminster Alternative
(where applicable) |
| Accountable Officer |
Designated official of the Scottish Administration responsible to the Parliament for the proper use of public money | Accounting Officer |
| Accounting Policies | The ways the Executive or other organisation has chosen, as being most appropriate to its circumstances, to apply standards set out in the Resource Accounting Manual. | |
| Accounting Standards | Standards are issued or adapted by the Accounting Standards Board and are applicable to financial statements of an organisation that are is required to give a true and fair view of its state of affairs and of its income and expenditure. | |
| Accruals Accounting | A method of accounting which records expenditure as it is incurred and income as it is earned during an accounting period.(Compare with cash accounting.) | |
| Administration Income/ Expenditure | Transactions concerned with the costs of administration, for example, staff costs and related overheads. Programme income and expenditure is that which is not administration income and expenditure | Departmental Running Costs |
| AGS | Auditor General for Scotland | |
| Aims | The main purposes for which a Department exists. An aim is not necessarily quantifiable, but it gives direction to the Department's activities. Aims, objectives and targets can be regarded as an hierarchy. | |
| Ambit | See Scope. | |
| AME | Annually Managed Expenditure. | |
| Appropriation Account | See Departmental Account. | |
| Annuality | Principle that Parliament authorises expenditure for one financial year at a time. | |
| Appropriations in Aid (A in A) | See Budget Receipts | |
| Approved Budget | A Budget submitted by the Executive and approved by the Scottish Parliament. | Total of all votes |
| Assets | Rights or other access to future economic benefits controlled by an entity as a result of past transactions or events. | |
| Balance Sheet | A financial Statement which shows the assets, liabilities and capital of an organisation on a particular date, normally the end of the accounting period. | |
| Budget Proposal | A document submitted by the Executive requesting funds from the Parliament. | Main Estimate |
| Budget Amendment (approved or proposed) |
A revised budget submitted during the financial year which requests additional funds (including permission to take up funds carried forward from previous years), or significant reallocations, or both. | Supplementary Estimates |
| Budget Act | The Act of the Scottish Parliament giving the Executive the authority to spend according to the proposals in the Approved Budget. | Appropriation Act |
| Budget Overspend | Expenditure in excess of that authorised in the approved budget. | Excess Vote |
| Budget Procedures | Procedure for authorising expenditure by Parliament. | Supply Procedures |
| Budget Receipts | Receipts which, with the authority of the Parliament, are used to finance some of the gross expenditure on a Budget, thus reducing the amount to be issued from the Scottish Consolidated Fund. | Appropriations in
Aid (A in A) Receipts on net subheads |
| Budget Section | A subdivision of a Departmental Budget one level below main programme. | |
| Budget Subhead | The detailed subdivision of a Budget Section. | |
| Term | Definition | Westminster Alternative |
| (where applicable) | ||
| Budget Transfer | The process where the Executive transfers money from one area of an Approved Budget to another. | Virement |
| Carry forward | Carry forward from one year to another of underspending on a Departmental Budget. | End-Year Flexibility |
| Cash Accounting | A method of accounting which records cash payments and cash receipts as they occur within an accounting period. (Compare with accruals accounting). | |
| C&AG | Comptroller and Auditor General. Responsible for running of the National Audit Office and for assisting the Public Accounts Committee in its scrutiny of public expenditure. | |
| Consolidated Fund | The UK Exchequer account into which tax revenues and other current receipts not specifically directed elsewhere are made and from which payments for the bulk of central government expenditure is made. | |
| Contingency Fund | An element of the Scottish Consolidated Fund which may be used by the Executive for spending on services for which there is no prior Parliamentary approval. | |
| CSG | Consultative Steering Group. | |
| CSR | Comprehensive Spending Review, replacing Public Expenditure Survey. | |
| DEL | Departmental Expenditure Limits. | |
| Departmental Account | An account produced by a Department of the Scottish Administration at the end of the financial year comparing the Approved Budget with actual income and expenditure. | Appropriation Account |
| Departmental Budget (proposed or agreed) | A budget for a Department of the Scottish Administration. | Vote |
| Depreciation | A measure of the wearing out, consumption, or other reduction in the useful life of a fixed asset whether arising from use, passage of time or obsolescence through technological or marked changes. For intangible assets the term amortisation is used instead of depreciation. | |
| Estimates | See Budget. | |
| Excess Receipts | Receipts in excess of those forecast in a Departmental Budget. | |
| EXPSO | Expert Committee on Procedures and Standing Orders. | |
| EYF | See Carry Forward. | |
| FlAG | Financial Issues Advisory Group. | |
| General Fund | In a Department's accounts, the balance on the General Fund represents its total assets less liabilities to the extent that it is not represented by other reserves. | |
| Interim Budget Approval | Authorisation for the Executive to spend prior to formal approval of the detailed Estimates. | Vote on Account |
| Investments | Any application of fluids which is intended to produce a return by way of interest, dividend, or capital appreciation. | |
| Liaison Committee | Select Committee of the House of Commons which considers general matters relating to the work of Select Committees. | |
| MSP | Member of the Scottish Parliament. | |
| NAO | National Audit Office. Responsible for audit of central government departments and bodies and for some health service accounts but not for local government. | |
| Net Cash Requirement | The cash implications of a Department's resource budget. It is the cash limit that will apply to Departmental spending. | |
| Non-cash Costs | Costs which are not reflected by cash transactions affecting the organisation, but are costs incurred elsewhere on behalf of the organisation. Examples are the cost of capital charge and the audit fee. These are sometimes referred to as Notional Costs. | |
| Objectives | Specific planned achievements. Objectives contribute towards an organisation's aims and should be expressed in a way which enables determination of their achievement. They can be regarded as part of a hierarchy of aims, objectives and targets. | |
| Operating Cost Statement | A statement showing resources consumed during the year in support of both the department's own administration expenditure and its programme expenditure, net of departmental income. | |
| Public Accounts Commission | A statutory commission, consisting of 9 members of the House of Commons, which is responsible for general financial oversight of the National Audit Office. | |
| Public Accounts Committee (PAC) | Select committee of the House of Commons, charged with ensuring propriety, efficiency, economy and effectiveness in the spending of public money. | |
| Public Expenditure Survey (PES) | The annual review of public expenditure plans for 3 years ahead. | (Now replaced by CSR) |
| Reserve | An element of the Scottish budget which is held back for use in the case of an emergency. | Reserve |
| Resource Accounting | The application of accruals accounting to central government. | |
| Resource Budgeting | Planning and controlling public expenditure on a resource accounting basis. | |
| Scottish Consolidated Fund(SCF) | The Fund set up by s.65 of the Scotland Act 1998 from which expenditure by the Scottish Administration is made and into which all receipts of the Scottish Administration must be paid, unless Parliament authorises otherwise. | |
| Scope | The formal description of the activities to be financed from a Departmental Budget. | Arnbit |
| Supply Estimates | See Budget. | |
| Supply Procedures | See Budget Procedures. | |
| Surrendered receipts | Receipts which Parliament has not authorised to be applied to supplement expenditure and which must be surrendered to he Scottish Consolidated Fund. | Consolidated Fund Extra Receipts (CFERs) |
| UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice(GAAP) | The accounting and disclosure requirements of the Companies Act(1985) and pronouncements by the Accounting Standards Board (principally accounting standards and Urgent Issues Task Force abstracts), supplemented by accumulated professional judgement. | |
| Vfm | Value for money. Vfm audit refers to examinations of the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which a body has used its resources in discharging its functions. | |
| Vote | At Westminster an individual Supply Estimate (so called because the procedure which Parliament authorises expenditure is to Vote Supply). |