The Office for National Statistics (ONS), along with other departments and their delivery agents, has been exercising tighter controls on expenditure across government and in a co-ordinated manner for five areas of discretionary spend (consulting, property, ICT, recruitment, and advertising and marketing).

Exceptions to the Spending Controls were published on 15 December 2010, setting out clearly and transparently where money was spent in each of these areas.

Exceptions publication will now become a regular part of the transparency agenda and we propose to publish quarterly alongside the Quarterly Data Summary.

Exceptions for previous years are available on the National Archives.