Economic and social impact Consultation closed 05/02/21

Response to Treasury Select Committee Inquiry on the Spending Review 2020: Green Book

David Barnes

Policy & Public Affairs Manager

Last updated: 12th February 2021

The Treasury Committee has issued a call for evidence on changes to HM Treasury's Green Book. 

The Green Book "is guidance issued by HM Treasury on how to appraise policies, programmes and projects. It also provides guidance on the design and use of monitoring and evaluation before, during and after implementation." The Committee will examine the Government’s recently published Green Book Review 2020: Findings and response and the new Green Book (2020).

The CIOB has responded to the call for evidence which has now been approved by the Treasury Committee. The response includes recommendations to:

  • Champion an outcomes-based approach to the appraisal of social value and undertake and encourage amongst departmental stakeholders rigorous monitoring and evaluation to determine the effectiveness of Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) appraisal frameworks. 

  • Incorporate learnings from the Construction Innovation Hub Value Toolkit in future iterations of Green Book supplementary guidance.  

  • Makes clear how the revised Green Book is intended to operate alongside the new Construction Playbook to provide a consistent approach to appraising project value. 

  • Incorporate net zero as a core element of the Green Book appraisal framework. 

We will provide a full link to the call for evidence upon approval from the Committee. In the meantime, if you have any queries, please contact [email protected]

Written evidence submitted by the Chartered Institute of Building

Download Written evidence submitted by the Chartered Institute of Building.pdf (pdf 146 kb)