Memorandum submitted by the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
DEFRA'S
WINTER SUPPLEMENTARY
ESTIMATE
In your letter of 6 January you asked for further
clarification of why expenditure increased in our Winter Supplementary
Estimate (WSE).
The increased expenditure relates to the following
areas:
— DEL Reserve Claim—Most of the
increased expenditure highlighted by the Committee related to
our claim on the DEL Reserve, which was needed to supplement existing
budgets to deal with the consequences of Foot and Mouth Disease
(FMD), including backlogs and remaining specific FMD work. Our
Reserve claim was approved by Treasury on the basis that Defra
did not have sufficient funds to cover the additional pressures
on the areas set out in my earlier letter.
— End Year Flexibility (EYF)—The
Committee also highlighted expenditure increases relating to the
take-up of our End Year Flexibility (EYF) entitlement. EYF is
a facility that allows us to carry forward some underspends from
one year to the next. EYF ensures that overall funding for key
projects is not lost and facilitates better planning of budgets
overall. The details of our EYF claim were presented to Parliament
in July 2002 and published in the Public Expenditure 2001-02 Provisional
Outturn White Paper Cm 5574.
— Ex-DETR Machinery of Government (MOG)
Transfer to Defra—This item was also highlighted by the
Committee and relates to an agreed transfer to Defra omitted from
the Main Estimate.
— Flood Defence—This was the
final item highlighted by the Committee and relates to the take-up
of funds agreed in the November 2000 Flood Defence Package omitted
from the Main Estimate.
10 January 2003
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