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Guidance

The Green Book

UK government guidance on appraisal.

Updates to this page

From:
HM Treasury and Government Finance Function
Published:
18 April 2013
Last updated:
5 February 2026
Show all updates

  1. The Green Book has been updated in line with commitments arising from the Green Book Review 2025. It is radically shorter and simpler, with duplication and wordiness reduced throughout. The document has been restructured, with most annexes having been merged into the core text to improve comprehensibility. Substantive changes have been made throughout, such as: Value for money and benefit-cost ratios (BCRs) have been reframed, public sector fraud and error have been clarified, and “evaluation” has been removed from the document’s subtitle.

  2. Removed ‘Agile digital and IT projects: clarification of business case guidance’. This is still visible on the Green Book and accompanying guidance webpage. Moved the Business Case Guidance to a separate gov.uk website

  3. The Green Book webpage is being updated to reflect the environmental principles policy statement coming into effect from 1 November.

  4. New link to collection page (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-green-book-and-accompanying-guidance-and-documents) to improve signposting. Removed link to sign up to the Green Book newsletter. Link can be found on the collection page (Green Book and Accompanying Guidance and Documents).

  5. Updated for 2022

  6. Updated with HTML version of The Green Book 2020.

  7. Updated with The Green Book 2020.

  8. Reduced content on page.

  9. Updated with 'Infrastructure Business Case: International Guidance, Infrastructure Business Case: International Guidance Annexes and Infrastructure Business Case: International Case Study'.

  10. Added Business Case Templates documents to the page

  11. Updated with revised version of 'Access to training and accreditation in best practice business cases'.

  12. Replaced 'Public sector business cases using five case model: guidance' with 'Business case guidance for programmes', 'Business case guidance for projects', 'Business case guidance for programmes (International version)' and 'Business case guidance for projects (International version)'.

  13. New version of the Green Book published, as well as accompanying academic paper.

  14. Link to new guidance on Treasury approvals for programmes and projects added.

  15. Updated better business cases guidance published

  16. updated 'Access to training and accreditation in best practice business cases' publication

  17. Public sector business cases using the five case model: templates file (.doc) replaced (with (.odt)

  18. 'Agile digital and IT projects: clarification of business case guidance' published

  19. Updated guidance on public sector business cases using the 'five case model' published

  20. First published.

Documents

The Green Book (2026)

PDF, 951 KB, 88 pages

The Green Book (2026)

HTML

Details

The Green Book is the government’s guidance on appraisal, the process of assessing the costs,  benefits and risks of different options for achieving government objectives.

The Green Book is supported by a wider collection of supplementary guidance, training and templates and support materials.

Previous editions of the Green Book

Previous editions of the Green Book are now withdrawn. For purposes of academic study and public information, the 2003 edition and the 2022 edition of the Green Book can be found on the National Archives website.

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