WELFARE
TO WORK
31. Will the operations of the Wales New
Deal Task Force incur any Welsh Office expenditure?
The Chairman and members of the Wales New Deal
serve in a voluntary capacity and are not paid a salary. They
are able to claim travelling and accommodation expenses for attending
meetings and these expenses are met by the Employment Service.
The only expense which falls to the Welsh Office
is in providing some manpower resource to staff a Task Force secretariat,
run jointly with the Employment Service.
32. Please explain the effect of North West
Wales being designated an Employment Zone.
By being designated as one of five prototype
Employment Zones people who have been unemployed for a year or
more in the Employment Service Districts of North West Wales and
North Wales Coast will have access to a new and innovative programme
of measures to meet their local needs.
EDUCATION
Further Education
33. What are the reasons for, and expected
effect of, the reduction in capital grant for the FEFCW?
The inherited baseline for the FEFCW for 1998-99
was £169.6 million.
In recognition of the pressures on the further
education sector in Wales we increased the FEFCW's 1998-99 grant
by £5.4 million in November 1997. Arising from the Budget
in March 1998 we have made a further sum of £3.5 million
available to the FEFCW in 1998-99, to administer an "Education
for Industry Challenge Fund", in partnership with Training
and Enterprise Councils in Wales. Taken together, we have increased
the FEFCW's grant for the current financial year by £8.9
million, which more than offsets the last government's planned
reduction of £7 million in 1998-99.
Following consultation with further education
institutions, the FEFCW has combined the recurrent and capital
grant lines for 1998-99. FE colleges are, of course, able to decide
which elements of their FEFCW allocations are to be spent on capital
and can, if they wish, apply income generated elsewhere to capital
expenditure.
Higher Education
34. £10 million extra is to be made
available to HE in Wales, £8.3 million of it from contributions
to tuition fees. Where is the other £1.7 million to come
from? What is the £10 million to be spent on? How much of
it will be used to offset the costs of setting up and administering
the new system?
The £10 million comprises estimated private
contributions to tuition fees of £8.8 million plus an increase
of £1.2 million in the Department's grant for student Access
Funds. The cost to the sector of collecting the tuition fees is
estimated to be £0.470 million.
The additional money is to be used to:
— maintain and improve quality of higher
education in Wales;
— meet urgent infrastructure needs
for teaching and research; and
— increase student support to promote
wider access.
TRANSPORT, PLANNING
AND ENVIRONMENT
Railways
35. Please explain the Welsh Office's responsibility
for railways. From which sources does the £8 million for
railways referred to in paragraph 6.25 originate?
The Welsh Office's principal objective in relation
to the railways is to oversee passenger and rail freight services
in Wales. My Hon Friend and I have a keen interest in railways
matters as they affect Wales; and my officials maintain close
and regular contact with their counterparts in the Department
for the Environment, Transport and the Regions on all relevant
railways issues.
I do, however, have very few statutory functions
in relation to the railways. My main statutory function is in
respect of Freight Facilities Grant under Sections 139 and 140
of the Railways Act 1993. The grants encourage the transfer of
freight from road to rail based on the environmental benefits
of removing lorry miles from the roads.
The £8 million for railways referred to
in paragraph 6.25 has been allocated between 1996-97 and 1998-99
from the Welsh Office's Strategic Development Scheme (SDS) through
the Cardiff-Valleys Sustainable Transport Initiative for track,
resignalling and other infrastructure and station improvements
between Cardiff and Pontypridd.
This SDS support rises to more than £9
million if the first phase of the planned refurbishment of Cardiff
Central Station is included. The SDS contribution forms part of
a wider funding package for the Initiative.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT,
HOUSING AND
SOCIAL SERVICES
Table 7.01
36. It is assumed that the forecast outturn
for 1997-98 for the North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal is a printing
error. What should it be?
The forecast outturn for 1997-98 for the North
Wales Child Abuse Tribunal shown on the table is a printing error.
The figure should be £5.925 million.
CAPITAL RECEIPTS
INITIATIVE
37. How does the £33.8 million capital
receipts for the sale of council houses divide between local authorities?
The table attached gives the distribution between
local authorities. £30.92 million is available for capital
spending in 1998-99. The remaining £2.46 million has been
set aside to provide revenue cover for the additional consequent
borrowing charges.
Distribution of additional resources under
the capital receipts initiative
| 1998-99 | 1997-98
| Total |
| £000 | £000
| £000 |
| Blaenau Gwent | 1,059 | 327
| 1,386 |
| Bridgend | 1,223 | 378
| 1,601 |
| Caerphilly | 2,097 | 646
| 2,743 |
| Cardiff | 2,861 | 883
| 3,744 |
| Carmarthenshire | 2,083 |
641 | 2,724 |
| Ceredigion | 599 | 184
| 783 |
| Conwy | 836 | 257
| 1,093 |
| Denbighshire | 708 | 217
| 925 |
| Flintshire | 1,181 | 364
| 1,545 |
| Gwynedd | 1,305 | 401
| 1,706 |
| Isle of Anglesey | 561 |
174 | 735 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | 693 | 214
| 907 |
| Monmouthshire | 932 | 289
| 1,221 |
| Neath Port Talbot | 1,919 |
593 | 2,512 |
| Newport | 1,327 | 411
| 1,738 |
| Pembrokeshire | 1,286 | 395
| 1,681 |
| Powys | 1,162 | 360
| 1,522 |
| Rhondda Cynon Taff | 2,380 |
734 | 3,114 |
| Swansea | 2,407 | 742
| 3,149 |
| Torfaen | 1,496 | 464
| 1,960 |
| Vale of Glamorgan | 995 |
308 | 1,303 |
| Wrexham | 1,810 | 558
| 2,368 |
| | |
|
| | |
|
| Total available for capital spending | 30,920
| 9,540 | 40,460 |
| | |
|
| Revenue cover for additional consequent borrowing charges
| 2,460 | — | 2,460
|
| | |
|
| | |
|
| Total | 33,380 | 9,540
| 42,920 |
| | |
|
HOME OWNERSHIP
38. Please explain the reasons for the planned reduction
in Low Cost Home Ownership unit completions (Table 7.07)?
Local authorities have indicated that their priority is for
additional affordable housing for rent. We believe in sustainable
home ownership but we have decided to drop the previous administration's
requirement for a substantial programme of low cost home ownership
which was not related to local authorities' priorities. However
where low cost home ownership is a priority for a local authority,
registered social landlords will be able to respond.
DISABILITY
39. Please explain the continuing fall in support for
people with disabilities (Table 7.01).
Resources for disabled facilities grants (DFG) are included
in local authorities' SCAs for private sector renewal. They are
not hypothecated and it is for individual local authorities to
decide what proportion of the resources available to them should
be targeted at DFGs. Although resources for private sector renewal
have fallen over the last two years, local authorities have therefore
been able to maintain or increase the level of support for disabled
people if that has been their priority.
HEALTH
Reconfiguration
40. What are the savings expected from the absorption
of the Health Promotion Authority and the Welsh Health Common
Services Agency? Will these funds remain in the health budget?
Savings can be expected to arise from the merger of the Health
Promotion Authority for Wales and of parts of the Welsh Health
Common Services Authority (WHCSA) into the Assembly, and from
the transfer of the bulk of WHCSA's activities to other NHS bodies.
These are to come from reduction in overheads and from rationalising
accommodation. It has not yet been possible to quantify them with
any precision, but I would expect them to be significant. The
health service will benefit from the savings, in particular from
the transfer of Crickhowell House from the NHS for use by the
National Assembly
41. What are the expected savings of the planned reconfiguration
of NHS trusts in Wales?
We have made clear throughout this exercise that we expect
between £5 million and £10 million per annum to be released
by this process. Latest estimates now indicate that in excess
of £7 million per annum is likely to be saved from management,
administration and unnecessary duplication to be reinvested into
direct patient care.
42. What is the estimated cost of the three Locality Commissioning
Pilot schemes and when are the results from the pilots due?
The three Locality Commissioning Pilots will cost a total
of £250,000 over two years. They will be subject to independent
evaluation towards the end of 1999 and the results will be available
in early 2000.
EXPENDITURE
43. A note explaining Section B of Vote 4, and how it
relates to the last line in Table 8.01 and to the £15.69
million in Table 8.03, would be very helpful.
1. Section B of Vote 4 (figures included in Table 8.01) contains
Voted provision for net advances to NHS Trusts. This equals the
initial aggregate net External Financing Limits as notified to
Trusts. Together with the depreciation charge Trusts receive in
their income from NHS purchasers, this is designed to finance
Trusts' approved capital expenditure.
2. The following illustrates, for 1998-99, how the Section
B Voted provision for net advances to Trusts for capital expenditure
relates to the total funding for capital expenditure, and to the
£15.69 million figure for central capital expenditure etc.
included in Table 8.03. Total net Hospital, Community and Family
Health Services capital expenditure, as I announced in February,
is £97.2 million and there is an additional £90,000
net expenditure on club subscriptions to central bodies within
Other Health Services and Education and Training (shown in Table
8.03). £16 million appropriations in aid (A-in-A) receipts
are estimated as accruing in 1998-99 from the disposal of surplus
assets. This provides for a gross total approved capital expenditure
for the NHS of £113.3 million.
3. In setting the Vote, £62.6 million of provision to
meet approved capital expenditure transfers to Hospital, Community
and Family Health Services revenue provision (Vote 4, line A.2),
to fund health authorities to meet Trusts' depreciation charges,
and £34.3 million represents the Section B provision for
net advances to Trusts. This leaves the gross Voted provision
for capital of £16.3 million (Vote 4, line A.3) of which,
as shown in Table 8.03, £0.5 million is allocated to health
authorities and the Welsh Health Common Services Authority and
£90,000 is to meet central club subscriptions. The balance
is the gross £15.69 million figure included in Table 8.03
which, provided A-in-A receipts materialise as forecast, is available
to meet additional central expenditure requirements and/or advances
to Trusts for approved capital expenditure.
4. The following explains the figures in the last line of
Table 8.01. The Trust finance regime also includes numerous factors
other than approved capital expenditure in setting Trusts' External
Financing Limits. For example, there is a requirement for a 6
per cent return on assets employed (and the actual 6 per cent
return may vary from the forecast); for making cash repayments
to the Department; and indeed, actual depreciation charges may
vary from those originally forecast and included in the Voted
figures. Therefore, Trusts' actual cash requirements for advances
from the Department may differ from Voted provision. Where funds
were advanced to Trusts above (or indeed below) Vote provision
for advances (ie, in the years 1995-96 and 1996-97), these amounts
are categorised as "non-Voted" and are reported at the
foot of Table 8.01. This is reported as it occurs to HM Treasury
and the Department is required to recover from Trusts any advances
made in excess of Vote provision for advances. Of course, in any
single financial year, the funding available to advance to Trusts
is governed by the aggregate funding available in Vote 4.
ACTIVITY
44. Why are there omissions from the health data (gross
cost per prescription and current expenditure per patient) in
Table 8.07?
I am grateful to the Committee for drawing my attention to
these omissions. I have asked for my officials to re-examine the
whole run of data in this table. Apparently there have been some
compiling errors, for which I must apologise. The correct figures
are:
| 1985-86 | 1991-92
| 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95
| 1995-96 | 1996-97 | Per cent
change since
1985-86
|
| Current exp. per patient | 35.65
| 44.11 | 48.94 | 50.32
| 52.49 | 55.81 | 56.85
| 59.50 |
| Prescription items (million) | 26.20
| 32.00 | 33.40 | 34.90
| 35.8 | 37.10 | 38.00
| 45.0 |
| Gross cost per person | 4.39 |
6.69 | 7.16 | 7.53
| 7.85 | 8.18 | 8.56
| 95.00 |
45. Why have Gwent Community Trust been unable to provide
activity data (Table 8.08) since 1993-94?
There has been concern for some time that counting the number
of contacts is not the best way to measure community nursing activity.
Gwent Community NHS Trust now has a management information system
which, although it is not able to provide the Welsh Office with
contacts data, is considered by them to be more appropriate to
their needs and superior to a contacts based system. The need
for a better measure of activity is currently under discussion
in both Wales and England.
OHMCI
46. Please explain the current and future role of OHMCI
in inspecting nursery provision (see note 2 to Table 9.05). Have
resources been allocated to this purpose?
Section 10 of the Schools Inspection Act 1996 governs OHMCI's
inspection of maintained nursery and primary schools, including
those that make provision for three to five year olds. The section
10 inspection programme is ongoing; all nursery and primary schools
will have been inspected by July 1999, with a new cycle of inspections
starting from September 1999. Funding for this programme has been
allocated to OHMCI.
OHMCI inspection of the non-maintained nursery sector was
triggered by the introduction of the nursery voucher scheme, and
has continued following the transitional arrangements which replaced
the scheme. Between January 1997 and March 1998, 360 non-maintained
nursery settings were inspected.
New arrangements for the inspection of publicly funded non-maintained
nursery settings will apply from September 1998 following the
introduction of Early Years Development Plans. OHMCI will inspect
non-maintained settings prescribed in the Plans prepared by each
of the 22 local Early Years Partnerships in Wales. Partnerships
have until the end of May to submit their draft Plans to me for
comment and approval.
The Welsh Office and OHMCI will discuss inspection arrangements
for the non-maintained nursery sector in the light of the Plans.
The costs of inspection are covered in my overall public expenditure
plans. They will depend on the level of non-maintained settings
prescribed in Plans.
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