§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
What categories of policy implementation can usefully or successfully be evaluated in money terms, as for example in the Foreign Commonwealth Office or the Ministry of Defence. [HL4585]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyIn order to deliver the best possible services, the Government are committed to consistent appraisal of policies across departments. This entails being clear about the objectives of policies and thinking about alternative ways of achieving them. It also requires estimating and presenting the costs and benefits of each potentially worthwhile option, taking into account associated risks and uncertainties. The general approach of cost-benefit analysis is a useful discipline, posing fundamental policy questions, even when a large element of judgment is called for as to the relative merits of policy outcomes. Identifying the opportunities that will be forgone by pursuing a particular policy—maintaining an embassy or adopting a new weapon system for instance—obliges the decision maker to acknowledge the scarcity of resources available to the economy. HM Treasury guidance recognises that it is not possible to put a monetary value on all important factors. There will always be some wider managerial or 223WA political dimensions which must be evaluated by those responsible for the final decision. None the less there is considerable scope for assessing in money terms the best way of achieving a given policy objective which itself is not assigned a monetary value (cost-effectiveness analysis).