Commentary on Sections Staff and resources
184.Sections 48 to 51 together make provision for the resourcing and funding arrangements for the Supreme Court. They establish the post of Chief Executive of the Supreme Court within a clear statutory framework, which places certain duties on the Chief Executive and the Lord Chancellor. The Chief Executive will be responsible for the non-judicial functions of the Court and anything delegated to him by the President under section 50 (in effect allowing the Chief Executive to be formally responsible for appointing staff to the Court). In doing so the Chief Executive will be answerable to the President, in accordance with whose directions he will be required to act in carrying out his functions (although not so as to override any other duty or restriction on his powers). The Chief Executive will be responsible for ensuring that the Court’s resources are used to provide an efficient and effective system to support the Court in carrying on its business. The Lord Chancellor has a corresponding duty under section 50 to provide accommodation for the Court and to provide other resources to allow the Chief Executive to carry out his responsibilities. The resourcing arrangements will operate as follows:
	The administrative service for the Supreme Court will be headed by a Chief Executive, a civil servant appointed by a process involving an ad hoc commission.
	The staff of the Court will be civil servants, accountable to the Chief Executive and not to the Lord Chancellor.
	The Chief Executive will be principally answerable to, and operating under the day-to-day guidance of, the President of the Court.
	The President of the Supreme Court and the Chief Executive will determine the bid for resources for the Court in line with Governmental spending review timescales.
	The bid will be passed to the Lord Chancellor, who will include it as a separate line in the overall DCA bid submitted to the Treasury.
	The Lord Chancellor will be responsible for directly dealing with the Treasury to secure resources for the Court during the Spending Review process.
	The Treasury will scrutinise the overall DCA bid and approve the overall financial expenditure for the DCA group in the Spending Review period including the Supreme Court.
	Following the settlement DCA will give a separate Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) to the UK Supreme Court.
	The Chief Executive of the Supreme Court will submit an estimate to HM Treasury which will then be presented before the House of Commons as part of the overall estimates.
	The House of Commons will approve the overall estimates and transfer resources accordingly.
	Because the Supreme Court will have its own estimate, the funds approved will be transferred to the Court direct from the Consolidated Fund, not via the DCA.
	The Chief Executive will be the Accounting Officer for the Supreme Court and so directly accountable to the Court and to Parliament, rather than being subject to the DCA Permanent Secretary as Principal Accounting Officer.