2025 Spending Review: fact checked

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is today delivering this Labour government’s first Spending Review, which outlines future planned day-to-day spending for all government departments.

Ms Reeves’ announcement in the House of Commons is being broadcast in full on Parliament’s website, as well as on BBC Parliament.

Our team of fact checkers are monitoring claims from Ms Reeves’ announcement and reaction afterwards in real time, with the help of our AI tools. We’re a small team, so it’s not possible for us to check every single claim, but if we can publish a quick verdict, we will (initially on X).

You can get involved too—if you spot anything you think we should be investigating, please tag the @FullFact account on X or contact us here and we’ll do our best to take a look.

We’ll be updating this page later today with further analysis. For now, here’s a quick summary of what we’re expecting from the Spending Review, and how we are fact checking it.

What is the Spending Review?

In Spending Reviews, governments outline their planned departmental budgets for the coming years.

The Spending Review covers how much funding each government department will receive for day-to-day spending (Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit, or RDEL) across three financial years—2026/27 to 2028/29—as well as investment spending (Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit, or CDEL) for these years and the following, 2029/30.

• RDEL spending covers things like goods and services, such as the salaries of doctors and nurses, and the cost of medicines.
• CDEL expenditure covers investment into things like new hospital buildings, or new roads.

In March’s Spring Statement, the government said that overall RDEL spending “will grow at 1.2% in real terms per year from 2025/26 to 2029/30”.

The Spending Review process has been going on for a while. So-called “Phase 1” of the Spending Review was completed at the Autumn Budget, according to the government, when departmental budgets for 2025/26 were set. Departments have had to submit budget requests to the Treasury, which has reviewed these requests, then discussed them with secretaries of state.

Spending Reviews outline around 40% of public spending, according to the House of Commons Library, which notes that the rest of spending is “largely driven by demand that can’t be planned, such as benefits”.

MPs do not have a vote on the Spending Review itself. The last Spending Review took place in 2021.

How are we fact checking the Spending Review?

We are scrutinising claims made by the chancellor and MPs who respond in the Commons and after. We will highlight statements that we think are wrong, misleading or need more context, and aim to post immediate updates on X where we can. However, some claims may take more time to investigate.

Today’s announcement is also likely to be significant in terms of the government’s delivery of its manifesto pledges—something we’re following closely with our Government Tracker, which is now monitoring over 60 pledges. We’ll be sharing this analysis in our coverage, and also updating the tracker with any relevant new information.

We’ve written more about how we ‘live fact check’ here. When Parliament is sitting we monitor Prime Minister’s Questions in real time each week.

During the 2024 general election campaign, we live fact checked several events, including debates featuring representatives and leaders from multiple parties, as well as head-to-head events with Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak. We also live fact checked TV debates during previous general elections, and the 2024 Conservative leadership contest.