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The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:
(i) transfer of £190,000 to Best Value Inspectorate - Request for Resources (Local Government DEL - RFR2) from Fire Publicity (Main DEL - RfRl) to cover additional Fire Comprehensive Performance Assessment inspection work on Fire and Rescue Authorities.
(ii) transfer of £200,000 to Local Government on Line (Local Government DEL RFR2) from E-Planning (Main DEL - RFR1) to fund the National Process Improvement Project.
(iii) £102,000 transfer from Resource DEL to Capital DEL for a number of Invest to Save Budget Projects.
The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:
(iv) £102,000 transfer to Capital DEL from Resource DEL for a number of Invest to Save Budget Projects.
Culture, Media and Sport
Department Expenditure Limit (2007-08)
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Andy Burnham):
Subject to Parliamentary approval of any Supplementary Estimate, the Department for Culture Media and Sport's Departmental Expenditure Limit
(DEL) will be increased by £20,004,000 from £2,008,031,000 to £2,028,035,000 and the administration cost limit will decrease by £4,000 from £55,574,000 to £55,570,000. Within the DEL change the impact on resource and capital are set out in the following table:
Departmental Expenditure Limits and Administration Budgets
The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:
Take up of £4,000 End Year flexibility: for the Participation Survey.
The administration cost limit has decreased by £4,000 from £55,574,000 to £55,570,000. This is as a result of an internal transfer from administration costs to programme costs to correct a misallocation.
The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:
Take up of End-Year Flexibility of £20,000,000 to allow accelerated spending by the Olympic Delivery Authority within its agreed budget.
Defence
Department Expenditure Limit (2007-08)
The Secretary of State for Defence (Des Browne): Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Ministry of Defence Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) will be increased by £1,247,750,000 from £35,594,551,000 to £36,842,301,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on Resources and Capital are as set out in the following table:
| £’000 | |||||
| Change | New DEL | ||||
| Voted | Non-Voted | Voted | Non-voted | Total | |
| 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 changes to the resource and capital elements of the DEL arise from:
the take up of the Department’s End Year Indirect Resource Flexibility totalling £1,621,874,000 to reflect latest TLB forecasts of outturn of Indirect Resource expenditure;
an increase in the RfR2 of £566,000,000 Direct Resource DEL and £380,650,000 Capital DEL to reflect the forecast costs of peace keeping operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Balkans;
the transfer of £424,000,000 Indirect Resource DEL from RfRl to RfR2 to cover depreciation, cost of capital and impairment forecasts with no overall impact on DEL;
a transfer out of £750,000 to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform;
the take up of Capital End Year Flexibility (EYF) of £40,000,000 resulting from the sale of QinetiQ in 2005-06, as agreed with Treasury;
draw down of £200,000,000 from the Department’s (Unvoted) Unallocated Resource Provision to reflect the increased (Voted) Indirect Resource DEL forecast of outturn for RfRl with no overall impact on DEL;
resource and capital transfers in from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of contributions to the Balkans Conflict Prevention Pool net costs, the Global Rest of the World Conflict Prevention Pool costs, and Afghanistan capital costs of £39,850,000.
The changes to Resource DEL and Capital DEL will lead to an increased net cash requirement of £894,351,000.
I am placing a copy of the Ministry of Defence Votes A 2008-09 in the Library of the House.
Review Board for Government Contracts
The Secretary of State for Defence (Des Browne): The Government have accepted the findings of the Review Board for Government Contracts as detailed in their report of the 2007 “General Review of the Profit Formula for Non-Competitive Government Contracts”. The board’s recommendations will be implemented with effect from the 1 February 2008, in accordance with arrangements agreed between Government and industry, recorded in an addendum to the published report. I will be placing a copy of the report in the Libraries of both Houses.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Carbon Offsetting (Code of Best Practice)
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Hilary Benn): Today I am announcing the final framework for a Code of Best Practice for Carbon Offsetting. The code will increase consumers’ confidence when purchasing offsets by endorsing established mechanisms which offset in a clear and verifiable way. The code intends to inform and protect consumers by requiring providers of accredited offsets to supply clear information and transparent prices. A supporting quality mark and communications will help raise awareness about tackling climate change, the steps that consumers can take and the role offsetting can play. The Government encourage consumers to avoid and reduce their emissions and then use offsetting to tackle unavoidable emissions.
The Government’s appointed accreditation body, AEA, published the draft code today, a copy of which is available at:
AEA are seeking industry comments on the planned practical arrangements and we intend the final code to be implemented in April.
Initially the code will grant accreditation only to providers of Kyoto-complaint credits. The Government believe that these credits provide the best available guarantee to consumers that the amount of carbon they have purchased represents verifiable, additional carbon savings.
We recognise, however, the value the non-regulated market can add, in particular by enabling innovative offset projects to be tested prior to entering the compliance market. However, there is not yet a single agreed formal definition or fully operational standard for “good quality” Voluntary Emissions Reductions (VERs), which currently prevents their inclusion in the Government code. Therefore, I am inviting the industry to agree and put into practice its own standard for VERs, which can provide a similar level of assurance as the compliance mechanisms. This standard should address the principles of additionally, avoiding carbon leakage, permanence, verification, transparency and avoiding double counting. We will assist the industry to come together to discuss how this might be done.
Once industry has reached a consensus on a standard and it has been fully operational for six months, the Government will conduct an audit to confirm whether credits approved under the industry standard can be included under the Government code.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Departmental Expenditure Limit (2007-08)
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (David Miliband): Subject to Parliamentary approval of any necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) will be increased by £235,038,000 from £1,888,455,000 to £2,123,493,000. The administration budget will decrease by £9,424,000 from £870,060,000 to £860,636,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
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