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The take up of £3,950,000 End Year Flexibility from the Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office.
A decrease of £1,000 as a result of the transfer of budget to TSOL for our contribution to the Government Skills Funding programme.
Asset Recovery: £1.2 million Neutral Amount
A cash neutral change to our Programme budget of £ 1,220,000 being both increase in costs and increase in revenue as a consequence of Proceeds of Crime income and additional Cost Awards.
The HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor’s (TSOL) element of the Attorney General’s total DEL will be increased by £1,500,000 from £15,984,000 to £17,484,000. This increase will occur within the Administration budget which will increase from £13,972,000 to £ 15,472,000.
The change in TSOL’s near-cash resource DEL arises from:
Take-up £ 1,050,000 of administration costs resource End Year Flexibility (EYF) to meet the cost of policy support to the Attorney-General’s office and accommodation.
Take-up £100,000 of administration costs resource End Year Flexibility (EYF) to meet increased spending by the Crown Prosecution Inspectorate (HMCPSI) to upgrade video link equipment and the HMCPSI database and to quality assure a review of support services.
Take-up £350,000 of administration costs resource End Year Flexibility (EYF) to meet an increase in costs for non-recoverable disbursements relating to cases for the Attorney-General and costs relating to the Government Property Lawyers (GPL).
The Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office’s (RCPO) element of the Attorney General’s total DEL remains unchanged at £36,397,000.
Changes, which have no net effect on RCPO’s DEL, are:
A transfer of £2,000,000 programme resources to Capital DEL. This is required to fund capital spending for essential upgrades in the Department’s case management system.
Programme cost changes in respect of a £1,000,000 reduction in RCPO programme costs offset by a corresponding reduction in programme income.
Transport
Merchant Shipping (Light Dues)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Jim Fitzpatrick): I wish to announce that we will be consulting on proposed amendments to the Merchant Shipping (Light Dues) Regulations 1997.
On current projections, the General Lighthouse Fund will incur an estimated funding shortfall next year of around £21 million. Recent falls in the investment portfolio of the General Lighthouse Fund have reduced the capacity of the fund to defer or spread these increases in dues, which are being kept to the minimum necessary to deliver next year’s funding requirement. The Government have a statutory responsibility to ensure that the fund is maintained at an appropriate level to meet the operating requirements of the General Lighthouse Authorities. Failure to deliver safe maritime conditions would adversely affect the business interests of commercial enterprises and the safety of vessels and their crews.
We are proposing that light dues rates for merchant vessels calling at UK ports will be adjusted from 1 July this year by 6p from 35p to 41p per net registered ton (nrt); that the tonnage cap will rise from 35,000 to 50,000nrt, so that the maximum charge per call will
become £20,500; and that the voyage cap will be raised from seven voyages to nine voyages, so that a vessel will not be required to pay light dues after nine payments are made in the year. A payment is valid for a rolling month from the day of payment. Through this consultation we are seeking views on a range of options for raising the necessary money.
We have worked with the shipping industry over many years to reduce the costs of providing general aids to navigation and the General Lighthouse Authorities are rightly proud of their operational and financial performance where light dues rates have not had to rise since 1993 and have actually fallen by over 40 per cent. against RPI over that period. This has been achieved through major efficiency gains made by the General Lighthouse Authorities resulting in lower operational costs of over 20 per cent. in the last decade. We will continue to work with the industry and the General Lighthouse Authorities further to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the service.
In 2006, when rates were cut by 10 per cent., we had the industry’s assurance that as a result of this significant reduction, if the General Lighthouse Fund were to face greater financial demands than it could meet, the industry recognised that rates would have to rise. That time has now come and that is why we are proposing to make these changes to the regulations.
We will continue our negotiations with the Irish Government aimed at reaching a new lasting agreement for funding the work of the Commissioners of Irish Lights in providing a whole of Ireland aids to navigation service.
Copies of the consultation paper have been deposited in the House Libraries and are available on the Department for Transport website at http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations. Responses should reach Department for Transport by 18 May 2009.
Urban Congestion Performance Fund
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Paul Clark): I am today announcing the second payment tranche for the Urban Congestion Performance Fund that will see the 10 largest urban areas in England receive a further £10.7 million to study and address the causes of urban congestion.
My Department has a public service agreement indicator regarding journey time on main roads into urban areas. The indicator states that by 2010-11, the 10 largest urban areas in England will meet the congestion targets set in their local transport plan relating to movement on main roads into city centres. The indicator will be deemed to have been met if, on target routes in these areas, an average increase in travel of 4.4 per cent. is accommodated with an average increase of 3.6 per cent. in person journey time per mile.
In February the Department and National Statistics published the Transport Statistics Bulletin for the period up to quarter 4 2008. This included performance data for the urban congestion indicator up to the end of August 2008. These data showed that the average person journey time across all the target routes has improved by 3 per cent. between the baseline (using 2004-05 and
2005-06 data) and 2007-08. At the same time the average level of travel fell by 3.3 per cent. across all the target routes.
Based on this performance, the £10.7 million payment will now be shared between the participating areas as below:
| Urban Area | Tranche 2 payments |
The performance fund is worth a total of £60 million over four years, and today’s announcement will have seen a total of £22.7 million paid to the 10 areas. A further £35 million is available over the next two financial years, and will also be awarded on a performance basis.
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