Letter to the Clerk of the Committee from
the Parliamentary Relations and Devolution Team, Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, 5 April 2005
FCO SPRING SUPPLEMENTARY
ESTIMATE 2004-05
Your letter of 15 March asked for further information
on the matters detailed below.
DISCREPANCIES
There was a typing error in the Written Statement
International Organisations figure which should have read £7.555
million in line with the Estimate and Memorandum.
The OPM figure in the Written Statement was
wrong. The Resource OPM figure should have read £13.699 million,
which together with the Capital OPM figure of £0.411 million
totals £14.110 million. (The Resource OPM figure in the Written
Statement mistakenly subtracted the figure for British Council
OPM from the total OPM rather than that for Capital OPM.)
I apologise for these errors in the Written
statement. The figures in the Spring Supplementary Estimate and
the Memorandum were correct and we will put in place further checking
procedures to ensure consistency in future.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
DFID AND
FCO ESTIMATES
I can confirm that £12.551 million was
transferred from DFID to the FCO in the Spring Supplementary.
£1.038 million was transferred from DfID's Estimate provision.
£7.433 million was transferred from DFID's end year flexibility
provision (see paragraphs 64 and 68 of the DfID Memorandum). £4.080
million was transferred from DfID's non-voted provision. This
was not mentioned in the DfID Memorandum but was included in their
Written Ministerial Statement on 22 February (Official Report
Column 40WS).
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
ORIGINAL AND
REVISED ESTIMATE
FOR VISA
AND CONSULAR
INCOME
Up until 2004-05 we have included the baseline
provision for visa and consular income in our Main Estimate and
adjusted for forecast outturn at Spring Supplementary Estimate
stage as this income is demand led and volatile. As you point
out this has led to large adjustments in the Spring Supplementary.
In the 2005-06 Main Estimate we have increased the estimated visa
income in line with the forecast outturn for 2004-05. Income forecasts
are regularly reviewed in the light of demand and forecast growth
figures.
PUBLIC SERVICE
AGREEMENTS
You asked for more details on the effects of
the proposed funding changes on the FCO's abilities to deliver
its Public Service Agreements. Changes in the Spring Supplementary
are largely routine and planned (eg Overseas Price Movements,
transfers between government departments, International Organisations
cost-sharing agreement) and so would not change our ability to
deliver from our original plan. Where a Supplementary Estimate
includes new money, such as Reserve Claim money, in future we
will identify the main areas of impact where this is possible.
We are in the process of implementing a system of budgeting in
line with our strategic priorities, which will help in this, but
we may not always be able to report exactly how changes impact
on our public service agreements.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
We are happy to provide historical information
on departmental expenditure limits and will include this in future
memoranda.
Chris Stanton
Parliamentary Relations and Devolution Team
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
5 April 2005
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