The new ring-fenced prevention budget announced in the Budget could come to count as "investment" under the fiscal rules if it is defined tightly, Heather Stewart argues in the Guardian. The Treasury says that is not the plan.
The Preventative Departmental Expenditure Limit (PDEL) is ring-fenced money for preventive policy. It will be introduced at the 2027 Spending Review. Writing on 1 November, Stewart says it may be remembered as the Budget's lasting innovation.
Brit Brief reports that departments will have to argue the case for each project to count as preventive. It also reports that the impetus for the change came partly from Number 10. That account of where the idea came from has not been independently checked.