Recommendation 7

We asked the Treasury about when major and mega projects are given the approval to proceed and who makes these announcements. The role the Treasury plays in decisions about whether and how to proceed with a mega- project, its purpose and how to fund it is particularly important. At the time of our session, government approved an overall funding envelope for a mega-project’s whole-life cost, and then issued shorter-term commitments for a mega-project’s annual funding profile, often for a spending review period. Whole-life costs of large and complex projects can be significant and span years, even decades. However, annual budgets can be changed if a sponsor department needs to reprofile their spend.12