trading fund

trading fund

A UK government department, or an accountable unit within a government department, created under the Government Trading Funds Act 1973 and the Government Trading Act 1990, which enable the responsible Minister to set up as a trading fund a body which performs a statutory and monopoly service whose fees are fixed by statute.
Trading funds provide a financing framework within which outgoings can be met without detailed cash flows passing through vote-accounting arrangements, which means there is little to no public scrutiny of the bodies created through trading funds.