Departmental Expenditure Limits DELs
Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) are budgets allocated to - and spent by - government departments. DELs are set by the Treasury during Government spending reviews and can cover multi-year periods. Departments are not allowed to exceed these budgets in the set period. Most of the time, departments spend less than their DELs.
DELs can be spent on different types of public programmes and services. This can include operations and administration of services (known as resource spending or RDELs). DELs can also be spent on investments in growth oriented measures (known as capital spending or CDELs).
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