Guidance

Service Costing in Government

This guidance is intended to help departments and arm’s-length bodies take a practical, proportionate approach to service costing.

• From: Government Finance Function and HM Treasury
• Published: 6 August 2026

Documents

Service Costing in Government

HTML

Service Costing in Government (Word)

MS Word Document, 98.1 KB

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email govfinance@hmtreasury.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Service Costing in Government (PDF)

PDF, 355 KB, 30 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email govfinance@hmtreasury.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

This guidance is aimed at finance, analytical, policy and operational colleagues who are involved in costing work, and adjacent, downstream decision making. It supports common use‑cases like fee setting and review, service redesign, business planning (Spending Review/efficiency planning) and sets out the minimal assurance and accountability required so outputs are credible to departmental leadership, HM Treasury, and external scrutiny.

Published 6 August 2026