Economic Appraisal Guidance
DFP Corporate Logo Economic Appraisal Guidance

NI Practical Guide to the Green Book

Common Issues

  • APPRAISAL OF SMALL EXPENDITURES
    The effort put into appraisal should be in proportion to the scale of the spending in view. Follow this link for guidance on how to apply this principle to smaller expenditures.
  • DIFFERENT APPRAISAL TYPES & COMMON ERRORS IN APPRAISAL
    What is the difference between economic appraisal and commercial appraisal? Click here for the answer, and for information on the variety of forms that appraisal can take. A list of common errors in appraisal is also included.
  • PFI & PPP BUSINESS CASE TEMPLATE
    Do you need to know what DFP expects to find in a PFI or PPP business case? Look here for a summary of DFP's requirements for Outline and Full Business Cases.
  • THE WEIGHTED SCORING METHOD
    This is one possible approach to assessment of non-monetary factors. This link takes you to guidance on good practice, including a worked example.
  • BASICS OF DISCOUNTING
    Discounting calculations are usually undertaken using suitable computer software, but it is useful to have an understanding of the essential mathematics of discounting and the terms associated with it. This section provides a basic introduction.

Welcome to DFP's Economic Appraisal Guidance web pages

Front cover of the Northern Ireland Practical Guide to the Green BookEconomic appraisal is a key tool for achieving value for money and satisfying public accountability requirements. It involves the assessment of needs, objectives, options, costs, benefits, risks, funding, affordability and other factors relevant to spending decisions. DFP requires NI Departments to apply its principles, with appropriate and proportionate effort, to all decisions and proposals involving spending or saving public money (including EU funds) or changes in the use of public resources.

The full text of DFP's main economic appraisal guide The Northern Ireland Practical Guide to the Green Book 2003 is provided at this web page, both in HTML form (see left column opposite) and as a PDF file (see below). A number of other resources are provided, including spreadsheets to help calculate Net Present Values and Optimism Bias, links to other relevant sites, and contact details (see menu bar above).

The following document uses the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader. You can download the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader from here.

The Northern Ireland Practical Guide to the Green Book (PDF file size - 1.4mb)

To order a hard copy:

Hard copies of the Northern Ireland Practical Guide to the Green Book are available @ £9.95 each including postage from the DFP Economics Administration Unit. Please use the downloadable Order Form: