Where do UK taxes go?
United Kingdom · 2025–26 · GBP
Total public spending
+£70.1Bcompared with 2025
Offsets that reduce spending−£166M
These amounts are part of the total but cannot be drawn as positive boxes.
Positive categories £1.36T + offsets −£166M = net spending £1.36T. Small differences can result from source rounding.
About these numbers
FY2026 runs from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. Amounts are nominal pounds, not adjusted for inflation. UK public spending is funded by taxes, other receipts, and borrowing.
For this year: receipts £1.23T, spending £1.36T, headline funding gap £128.8B.
All UK public spending: £1,360,122 million. HM Treasury PESA Table 5.2, row 133. Checked 2026-10-07.
UK public spending in 2025–26
HM Treasury reported £1.36T in Total Managed Expenditure and the ONS reported £1.23T in public-sector current receipts. Pensions & welfare was the largest spending function at £407.3B. These are outturn figures, not future spending plans.
About the data and sourcesHM Treasury PESA 2026
2025–26 public spending by function
This reference table shows the latest financial year. The explorer above updates to the selected year.
| Spending function | Share of total | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Pensions & welfare | 29.9% | £407.3B |
| Health | 18.9% | £257.5B |
| Accounting adjustments | 9.7% | £132.5B |
| Debt interest | 9.6% | £130.3B |
| Education | 9.2% | £125.7B |
| Transport & economy | 6.9% | £94.0B |
| Defence | 4.8% | £65.4B |
| Police, courts & prisons | 4.1% | £55.7B |
| Running government & overseas aid | 2.6% | £35.2B |
| Housing & communities | 1.7% | £22.5B |
| Environment | 1.4% | £19.2B |
| Culture & recreation | 1.1% | £15.1B |
| EU transactions | -0.0% | −£166M |
| Total Managed Expenditure | 100% | £1.36T |
How to read this explorer
The hierarchy follows the UN Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG), with Treasury-specific health subfunctions. It covers central government, local government, and public corporations across the United Kingdom.
Function and subfunction values come from HM Treasury PESA 2026, Table 5.2. Accounting adjustments reconcile expenditure on services to Total Managed Expenditure. The financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March.
Receipts come from the ONS Public sector current receipts dataset. The displayed funding gap is TME minus current receipts; it is not the official ONS public-sector net borrowing measure because the two presentations use different accounting boundaries.
Amounts are nominal and rounded to the nearest £1 million. A dash in the Treasury workbook is treated as a nil amount. Last checked: 2026-10-07.