Coins database: what the Guardian's specialists think

Defence, Richard Norton-Taylor The Treasury released large amounts of raw data relating to defence expenditure but it was clear that it was far from complete. References to spending by the security and intelligence agencies were also omitted from the data released yesterday. Guardian researchers showed that the agencies' budgets came under codes referring to the Cabinet Office - which is responsible for setting spending limits for MI5, MI6, and GCHQ. However, their expenditure - including, for example, such details as pensions paid to former spies, were not included in yesterday's figures. The Ministry of Defence made it clear it did not expect any of the data released in the form that it was by the Treasury to be revelatory. The Treasury itself suggested the data would be of more interest to "institutions and experts" than the ordinary public as the material was "complex" and was being released "in its raw form, requiring technical expertise to process". There are many tantalising references to the MoD but no apparent pattern about what is released and what the figures signify. For while the sums are detailed, they do not relate clearly to programmes, policies, or items of equipment. But the government might yet find that the release of the data will come back to bite it. They are a tool for freedom of information act requests. Welfare, Randeep Ramesh Without the wisdom of crowds, Coins appears to throw up some interesting figures at first glance. In welfare it looks like tax credits, paid generally to people who earn between £6,500 to £25,000 a year, cost the taxpayer about £2bn a month. Child Benefit, which is not means tested, soaks up another £1bn. These sums dwarf the cost of winding down the Child Trust Fund, which will only save £320m over two years. At the department of health, the Strategic Health Authorities, likely to be chopped, cost the lions' share of £25m a month. Compare this to a big ticket item like expenditure on NHS pensions. This appears to be over £1bn a month. Meanwhile hospitals paid out about £50m a month to management consultants - how much went to McKinsey's which called for a 10% cut in workforce levels to save money is not clear. Home affairs, Alan Travis The database throws up some tantalising figures such as the fact that the Ministry of Justice's provision for "unbilled legal fees" involving the criminal defence service rose from £73 million in August last year to more than £111 million by last October. Deep in the Home Office budget it is possible to discover that the shadowy Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism paid out more than £4 million in grants to local authorities in May 2009. But there the detail stops. Presumably the local authority grants from the Home Office were part of the government's programme to prevent violent extremism and the MoJ budget lines don't explain why it is necessary to make such large provision for unbilled legal fees. The database also underlines the difficulties faced by the new coalition in trying to separate the identity card scheme from the system for issuing passports so that they can abolish it. The budget lines are all merged into one single Identity and Passport Service heading with all spending charged under UK Passport Agency. An intriguing reference to the Queen's civil list expenditure listed under the "central exchequer" which appears separate from the Treasury's accounts yields only one figure of £9.6m - £1.7m higher than the annual allowance - but without any context to explain its significance. Environment, Juliette Jowit The most striking thing about Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is simply that more than half last year's £3bn budget was spent on the UK's nuclear waste legacy. Compared to the huge payouts to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, every other programme looks modest. But some comparisons stand out: the Act on CO2 campaign urging people to cut energy use cost £10m, the same as the department spent on "oil and gas support". Spending on these fossil fuel industries was, in turn, more than double the £4m budget for international climate change adaptation, although two other departments take the lead on this issue - environment, food and rural affairs (£23.5m net last year for domestic adaptation) and international development (no separate budget of overseas). Act on CO2 is only a small part of overall spending on reducing pollution (£800m went on insulating buildings alone), oil and gas makes up most of UK energy but a relatively tiny spend (excepting their gargantuan tax concessions). But the raw numbers reflect criticisms of previous government policy: that it did not talk tough enough to voters on emissions, it hypocritically talked up a zero-carbon economy while encouraging fossil fuels, and it did not take adaptation seriously enough. Other quick-pick curiosities include £5m in income from "oil and other sub soil assets"; and £2.7m spent on 'smart meters' to measure electricity use and emissions in the home (much like an electricity meter...); if any readers know where they are, Guardian Environment would like to hear from you. World government data • Search the world's government data with our gateway Can you do something with this data? 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