Michael Reddell: Bad advice on public sector discount rates

A couple of months ago now I wrote a post about the new set of discount rates government agencies are supposed to use in undertaking cost-benefit analysis, whether for new spending projects or for regulatory initiatives. The new, radically altered, framework had come into effect from 1 October last year, but with no publicity (except to the public sector agencies required to use them). The new framework, with much lower discount rates for most core public sector things, wasn’t exactly hidden but it wasn’t advertised either.