8 Letter from the Clerk of the Committee
to the Cabinet Office
On behalf of the Committee, the Scrutiny Unit
has examined the Estimates Memorandum supporting the Cabinet Office
Spring Supplementary Estimate (SSE). A couple of issues have arisen
which I would like to clear up as soon as possible, ideally before
the Estimates are voted on.
The Scrutiny Unit identified a number of resource
changes in the Estimates Memorandum which appear not to have been
included within the Spring Supplementary Estimate itself. For
each of the points below could you explain why this is the case.
1. The key resource movement in the Estimates
Memorandum which, as far as we can tell, cannot be found in the
Spring Supplementary Estimate, is a £7.9 million draw down
of End Year Flexibility.
2. A second movement which cannot be found
in the Spring Supplementary Estimate is a £8.763 million
DEL transfer to other government departments, relating to the
Parliamentary Counsel Office.
3. Also, there are a number of smaller transfers
between the Cabinet Office and other departments which we cannot
see within the Cabinet Office's Spring Supplementary Estimate
or where the contra entry cannot be found in the other departments'
Estimate. These include £389k resource transferred to the
DTI, £335k resource from other departments and £557k
capital to HM Government Communications Centre.
If the resource changes have been omitted in
error then the Committee would like a note setting out the Cabinet
Office's proposed course of action to ensure that voted provisions
are not exceeded. Any resource movements not requested within
the Supplementary Estimate itself would obviously not be approved
by Parliament.
I would be grateful if you could provide a response
as soon as possible, ideally before the Committee meets on 2 March.
Given that the Estimates are due to be voted on very shortly,
the Committee would like to clear this up quickly.
Once these more urgent matters have been attended
to, we are likely to be writing for further explanations on the
Supplementary Estimates and to provide feedback on the quality
of the Estimate Memoranda.
27 February 2006
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