Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Written Evidence


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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