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27 Nov 2003 : Column 1WS

Written Ministerial Statements

Thursday 27 November 2003

WALES

Powys NHS Trust

The Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Peter Hain): Pursuant to the dissolution of the Powys NHS trust on 1 April 2003 and its absorption into the Powys Local Health Board, and the remission of the outstanding debt of the dissolved trust, HM Treasury has presented a Minute to the House on 27/11/2003 giving particulars and circumstances of the remission proposed by the National Assembly for Wales which it has approved in principle.

Departmental Expenditure Limit

The Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Peter Hain): The Wales Departmental Expenditure Limit will be increased by £1,344,000, from £10,608,142,000 to £10,609,486,000. The increase is a result of:

(a) £1,957,000 adjustment for Council Tax Benefit and Rural Rate Relief measures;


(b) £1,368,000 in respect of Countryside Commission for Wales pensions; and


(c) Net transfers to other Government Departments from the National Assembly for Wales of £1,981,000.

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These transfers are as follows:


(i) £4,168,000 to the Department for Constitutional Affairs in respect of the Wales Office;


(ii) £137,000 to ODPM for Ordnance Survey Pan Government Agreement (CCW);


(iii) £410,000 to ODPM for Ordnance Survey Pan Government Agreement (Planning);


(iv) £90,000 to ODPM for Ordnance Survey Pan Government Agreement (WDA);


(v) £395,000 from DWP for administration costs of additional financial assessments for Residential Allowances;


(vi) £97,000 from ODPM for Community Fire Safety;


(vii) £500,000 from the Home Office for Operation Tarian;


(viii) £371,000 from the Home Office for Staff Costs;


(ix) £193,000 from the Home Office for non—pay costs for regional government offices;


(x) £1,268,000 from the DTI for End of Life Vehicles.

D.E.L provision for the Wales Office of £4,154,000 (net of depreciation) including £3,330,000 for administration costs is included within the limits of the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Departmental Expenditure Limit

The Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn): Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Department for International Development DEL for 2003–04 will be increased by £127,348,000 from £3,629,106,000 to £3,756,454,000 and the administration costs limits has been increased by £3,250,000 from £209,000,000 to £212,250,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

(£000)

Resources				Capital
Change	New DEL	Of which voted	Non-voted	Change	New DEL	Of which voted	Non-voted
126,848	3,765,954	2,891,954	874,000	500	11,500	11,500	—

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from: RfR 1: Eliminating Poverty in Poorer Countries a transfer of £10,000,000 resource from the Unallocated subhead to the Reducing Poverty in sub-Saharan Africa Grants subhead; a transfer of £14,000 resource from DFID Reducing Poverty in Asia subhead to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a contribution to a British Geological Survey visit to Afghanistan; a transfer of £3,250,000 resource from the Central Reserve to the Reducing Poverty in the Rest of the World Administration subhead; a transfer of £1,000,000 resource from DEFRA representing a contribution to the Environmental Know-How Fund; a transfer of £116,250,000 resource from the Central Reserve to the Reducing Poverty in the Rest of the World Grants subhead; a transfer of £75,000,000 resource from the Unallocated subhead to the Reducing Poverty in the Rest of the World Grants subhead; a transfer of £38,000 resource from DFID Developing Innovative Approaches to Development subhead to the Home Office as DFID's contribution to GRECO membership; a transfer of £6,400,000 resource from the Central Reserve to the Developing Innovative Approaches to Development Grants subhead. The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from: a transfer of £500,000 from the Central Reserve to the Reducing Poverty in the Rest of the World capital subhead.

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HOME OFFICE

Departmental Expenditure Limit

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Blunkett): Plans of changes to the Departmental Expenditure Limit and Administrative Cost Limit for 2003–04 are set out below.

Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Home Office's Departmental Expenditure Limits for 2003–04 will be decreased by £11,514,000 from £12,546,484,000 to £12,534,970,000 and the administration costs limit will be increased by £80,386,000 from £3,351,317,000 to £3,431,703,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

		New DEL
	Change	Voted	Non-voted	Total
Resource	27,367	10,155,844	1,544,825	11,700,669
Capital	-8,881	822,573	233,546	1,056,119
	Depreciation*—		-182,725	-39,093	-221,818
Total	-11,514	10,795,692	1,739,278	12,534,970

* Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.

Details of the changes are available in the House Library.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Departmental Expenditure Limit

The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. John Prescott): Subject to Parliamentary approval of any necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Departmental Expenditure Limits for 2003–04 will change as follows:

(1) the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Main Programmes DEL will be increased by £259,342,000 from £6,655,307,000 to £6,914,649,000 and the administration costs limit will be increased by £29,268,000 from £367,110,000 to £396,378,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resource and capital are tabled below.

(£000)

		New DEL
	Change	Voted	Non-voted	Total
Resource	212,829	3,036,150	1,978,998	5,015,148
Capital	46,513	640,465	1,259,036	1,899,501
	Depreciation*1,594		-16,468	-2,000	-18,468
Total	260,936	3,660,147	3,236,034	6,896,181

* Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL, since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting. The change in depreciation is due to capital spending on The Rent Service and Planning Inspectorate Executive Agency programmes and transfer from the provision for Regional Development Agencies to the Department of Trade and Industry.

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The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from: (i) take up of End Year Flexibility of £266,254,000 comprising:

(a) £81,762,000 for the Sustainable Communities Plan;


(b) £64,727,000 for Housing programmes expenditure;


(c) £35,104, 000 for Fire Services (mass decontamination, search and rescue, firelink radio systems and the White Paper;


(d) £5,550,000 for the Fire Service College building refurbishment;


(e) £6,200,000 for Regional Policy programme expenditure;


(f) £500,000 for the Audit Commission;


(g) £300,000 for research expenditure;


(h) £7,269,000 (administration costs) for administration expenditure by The Rent Service and Planning Inspectorate Executive Agencies;


(i) £2,761,000 for programme expenditure by the Planning Inspectorate Executive Agency;


(j) £23,000 from the Evidence Based Policy Fund for Research;


(k) £41,038,000 non-voted for the Housing Corporation;


(l) £21,020,000 non-voted for Regional Development Agencies.

(ii) a net transfer of £52,925,000 to other government departments, comprising:

(a) £1,600,000 from Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, £1,404,000 from Department for Transport, £8,000 from Department for Health, £125,000 from Department for Culture, Media & Sports, £58,000 from Her Majesty's Treasury, £30,000 from Home Office, £686,000 from The Scottish Executive, £177,000 from Department for Trade & Industry, £275,000 from Ministry of Defence, £244,000 from Her Majesty's Custom & Excise, £148,000 from Forestry Commission and £637,000 from The Welsh Assembly for Payment to Ordnance Survey in relation to the Pan Government Agreement for supply of mapping data;


(b) £181,000 (administration costs) from Cabinet Office following the transfer of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat;


(c) £75,000 (administration costs) to Department for Transport for the Honours Secretariat and the Equality and Diversity Unit;


(d) £162,000 (administration costs) to Department for Health, £20,000 to Department for Culture, Media and Sports, £60,000 to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, £258,000 to Department of Education and Skills, £75,000 to Department for Transport, £70,000 to Department for Work and Pensions, and £60,000 to Home Office in respect of Local Government Public Service Agreements;


(e) £502,000 (administration costs) to Department for Constitutional Affairs following Machinery of Government changes;


(f) £700,000 from the Department for Transport to the Research Team to reverse a previous Machinery of Government change;


(g) £130,000 from Home Office for Special Grants programme;


(h) £100,000 from the New Ventures Fund to the Department of Education and Skills for a joint Residents' Consultancy Project;

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(i) transfers to Home Office of £2,000,000 for a joint Capacity Building and Crime Initiative, £250,000 for Community Support Teams, £1,500,000 for the Pathfinder projects and £30,000 for the Good Practice Events from the New Ventures Fund;


(j) £861,000 (administration costs) from Government Offices administration to the Department of Trade and Industry to reflect the reduction in review work;


(k) £2,315,000 (administration costs) from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to Government Offices administration for additional core agenda work;


(l) £17,104,000 (administration costs) from the Home Office to Government Offices administration in respect of Crime reduction, Active Communities Unit, Street Crime initiative, Community Cohesion, Drugs Prevention Advice, Communities Policy, Business Crime Advisors and core funding from SR2002 settlement;


(m) £762,000 (administration costs) from the Department for Culture, Media and Sports to Government Offices administration for Core agenda and funding from SR2002 settlement;


(n) £1,365,000 (administration costs) from Department for Transport to Government Offices administration for work on DfT agenda and funding from SR2002 settlement;


(o) £2,415,000 (administration costs) from Department for Education and Skills to Government Offices administration for core agenda, adult basic skills, additional Connexions funding and SR2002 settlement;


(p) £97,000 to the Welsh Assembly for Community Safety schemes;


(q) £77,169,000 from provision for Regional Development Agencies to Department for Trade and Industry.

(iii) An increase in receipts of £10,667,000 to offset similar increase in provision for Payment to Ordnance Survey and £850,000 to offset a similar increase in provision for Research.

(iv) A transfer of £500,000 to Request for Resources 2, to fund Audit Commission Performance Assessment.

(v) A net transfer of £21,844,000 from voted to non-voted provisions comprising:

(a) a transfer of £107,462,000 to non-voted DEL for the Housing Corporation;


(b) a transfer of £81,141,000 from non-voted to increase voted resource investment for the Sustainable Communities Plan;


(c) a transfer of £4,477,000 from non-voted Departmental Unallocated provision to voted provision (£2,000,000 for central administration) and (£2,477,000 for the Planning Inspectorate Executive Agency administration costs).

(vi) A reclassification of £91,462,000 New Deal for Communities resource investment provision as capital by a transfer to the Housing Corporation, non-voted provision fully offset by a transfer of capital from the Sustainable Communities Plan.

(vii) As a result of the changes to Request for Resources 1, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's administration provision has been increased by £29,268,000 from £379,652,000 to £408,920,000.

The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:

(a) take up of end year flexibility of £44,093,000 comprising

(i) £21,360,000 for the Sustainable Communities Plan;


(ii) £2,994,000 for Housing programmes expenditure;

27 Nov 2003 : Column 6WS

(iii) £9,647,000 Capital Modernisation Fund for fire services (New Dimension);


(iv) £1,500,000 for The Rent Service;


(v) £40,000 Capital Modernisation Fund (Evidence Based Policy Fund) for The Rent Service;


(vi) £8,552,000 for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's own capital expenditure;

(b) a transfer of £2,420,000 from the Department for Trade and Industry for core funding from SR2002 settlement.

Within the capital element of the DEL there is a net transfer of £66,267,000 from non-voted to voted provisions, comprising: £14,500,000 from provision to non-voted English Partnerships; £8,078,000 supplementary credit approvals for other housing programmes; £5,556,000 local authority Supplementary credit approvals for Fire New Dimension Search and Rescue and £67,133,000 to partly fund the New Deal for Communities reclassification).

(2) The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Local Government DEL will be increased by £27,947,000 from £41,331,545,000 to £41,359,492,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are tabled below.

£000

		New DEL
	Change	Voted	Non-voted	Total
Resource	19,498	40,928,700	98,082	41,026,782
Capital	8,449	324,710	8,000	332,710
	Depreciation*0		0	0	0
Total	27,947	41,253,410	106,082	41,359,492

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:

(i) take up of End Year Flexibility of £13,298,000 comprising:

(a) £3,375,000 for Valuation Services;


(b) £335,000 for Local Government on Line;


(c) £240,000 for Electoral Law;


(d) £8,475,000 for Other Grants and Payments;


(e) £873,000 draw down from Invest to Save Budget;

(ii) a transfer of £500,000 from Request for Resources 1 for Audit Commission Performance Assessment;

(iii) a transfer of £5,700,000 from capital for Local Government on Line.

The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from draw down of £12,000,000 from the capital modernisation fund (end year flexibility), £2,149,000 from the Invest to Save Budget and a transfer of £5,700,000 to resource to increase provision for Local Government on Line.

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