Written Ministerial Statements
Thursday 5 March 2009
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Spring Supplementary Estimates
The Minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs (Mr. Pat McFadden): Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform’s DEL will be reduced by £1,905,574,000 from £3,367,913,000 to £1,462,339,000 and the Administration budget will be reduced by £55,714,000 from £332,531,000 to £276,817,000.
Within the DEL change, the impact on Resources and Capital is as set out in the following table:
| Change | New DEL | ||||
| Voted | Non-Voted | Voted | Non-Voted | Total | |
| *The total of the ‘Administration Budget’ and ‘Near-Cash in Resource DEL’ figures may well be greater than total Resource DEL, due to the definitions overlapping. *Capital DEL includes items treated as Resource in Estimates and Accounts, but which are treated as Capital DEL in Budgets. *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 change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:
(i) a Machinery of Government transfer to the Department of Energy and Climate Change of a net negative £992,321,000 voted near cash and £1,711,504,000 of non-voted near cash in respect of clean, safe and competitively priced energy and energy liabilities;
(ii) a Machinery of Government transfer to the Department of Energy and Climate Change of a net negative £2,980,000 voted non cash and £47,752,000 of non-voted non cash in respect of clean, safe and competitively priced energy and energy liabilities;
(iii) a Machinery of Government transfer to the Department of Energy and Climate Change of £308,000 in respect of legal costs;
(iv) transfer of £40,000 from voted provision to non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision relating to the transfer to the Cabinet Office for the Security Monitoring and Co-ordination Centre made in the Winter Supplementary;
(v) new awards announced in the Pre Budget Report of £850,000 and £2,500,000 in respect of the National Debtline and Citizens’ advice;
(vi) a transfer of £250,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions in respect of compensation for mesothelioma sufferers provided through British Shipbuilders’ liabilities;
(vii) a Machinery of Government transfer of £29,000,000 to the Department of Energy and Climate Change in respect of their contribution to the regional development agencies’ “Single Pot”,
(viii) virement of £18,439,000 from voted to non-voted expenditure in respect of the regional development agencies reflecting reinstated contributions from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs;
(ix) virement of £ 1,196,000 from non-voted resource to non-voted capital expenditure in respect of the regional development agencies;
(x) a non-cash reserve claim of £21,000,000 for provisions for the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme;
(xi) a non-cash reserve claim of £25,000,000 for provisions for the Automotive Assistance programme;
(xii) virement of £7,000,000 Insolvency Service under-spend to the non-voted Capital Departmental Unallocated Provision to reduce the negative balance shown in the Winter Supplementary Estimate;
(xiii) additional non-cash of £ 1,700,000 resulting from reclassification under FRS26.
Also within the change to resource DEL, the changes to the Administration budget are (RfR1):
(i) a Machinery of Government transfer to the Department of Energy and Climate Change of £52,471,000 near cash and £3,000 of non-cash in respect of clean, safe and competitively priced energy and energy liabilities;
(ii) transfer of £1,240,000 to the Department for Communities and Local Government in respect of Government Office’ restructuring costs; and
(iii) virement of £2,000,000 administration under-spend to the non-voted Capital Departmental Unallocated Provision to reduce the negative balance shown in the Winter Supplementary Estimate;
The change in the Capital element of the DEL arises from:
(i) virement of £ 1,196,000 from non-voted resource to non-voted capital expenditure in respect of the regional development agencies;
(ii) virement of £7,000,000 Insolvency Service unde-spend to the non-voted Capital Departmental Unallocated Provision to reduce the negative balance shown in the Winter Supplementary Estimate;
(iii)virement of £2,000,000 administration under-spend to the non-voted Capital Departmental Unallocated Provision to reduce the negative balance shown in the Winter Supplementary Estimate;
(iv) a Machinery of Government transfer to the Department of Energy and Climate Change of a net negative £14,582,000 voted and £1,248,183,000 non-voted in respect of clean, safe and competitively priced energy and energy liabilities;
(v) a transfer of £200,000 from the UK Trade and Investment Estimate, utilised to reduce the negative capital Departmental Unallocated Provision shown in the Winter Supplementary Estimate;
(vi) a Machinery of Government transfer of £7,000,000 to the Department of Energy and Climate Change in respect of their contribution to the regional development agencies’ “Single Pot”,
(vii) receipt of £35,000,000 as part repayment of a capital loan made to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in 2007-08, utilised to reduce the negative capital Departmental Unallocated Provision shown in the Winter Supplementary Estimate;
(viii) virement of £20,000 from core Departmental capital, utilised to reduce the negative capital Departmental Unallocated Provision shown in the Winter Supplementary Estimate;
(ix) virement of £1,000,000 from the Insolvency Service, utilised to reduce the negative capital Departmental Unallocated Provision shown in the Winter Supplementary Estimate.
We regret that in error this written ministerial statement was not laid in the House on 12 February when the supplementary estimates were laid before Parliament (HC221).
Treasury
Alignment Project
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Yvette Cooper): The Government announced in its July 2007 Green Paper “The Governance of Britain” (Cm 7170) that it would simplify its financial reporting to Parliament, ensuring that it reports in a more consistent fashion at all three stages in the process—on plans, estimates and expenditure outcomes.
The Treasury submitted an initial memorandum to the relevant parliamentary Committees in November 2008, outlining the Government’s emerging thinking on how this commitment might best be delivered. I have sent a further memorandum to the Committees this week setting out the Government’s formal proposals for achieving better alignment between budgets, estimates and accounts. The proposals take account of the views expressed by the Committees in response to the November memorandum, as well as the results of a consultation exercise with key stakeholders external to Government, carried out during autumn 2008.
The memorandum notes that the Government propose to begin implementation of the new, better aligned framework from April 2010. To achieve this deadline, the Government would welcome Parliament’s agreement to its proposals by July 2009.
The memorandum is being published as a Command paper and presented to the House, and copies have today been placed in the House of Commons Vote Office, to enable all Members to assess the Government’s proposals.
Monetary Policy Committee
The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Alistair Darling): In my statement to the House of Commons on bank lending of 19 January, I announced the setting up of the asset purchase facility. I noted that this facility could be used by the Monetary Policy Committee as an additional way for meeting the inflation target, and that I would inform Parliament if the facility were to be used for monetary policy purposes.
Following the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee on 4 and 5 February 2009, the Governor of the Bank of England wrote to me on 17 February, requesting that the Monetary Policy Committee be authorised to use the facility to purchase eligible assets financed by central bank money. The Governor’s letter set out that the Monetary Policy Committee had concluded that it might be necessary to use asset purchases at future meetings in order to meet the 2 per cent. target for CPI inflation.
I replied to the Governor on 3 March, authorising the Monetary Policy Committee to use the asset purchase facility for monetary policy purposes. I also extended the range of assets eligible for purchase by the Bank of
England asset purchase facility fund to include UK Government debt purchased on the secondary market as well as the full range of private sector assets previously specified in my letter to the Governor of 29 January 2009. And I also authorised an increase in the scale of purchases under the facility to up to £150 billion, but that, in line with current arrangements and in recognition of the importance of supporting the flow of corporate credit, up to £50 billion of that should be used to purchase private sector assets. These are maximum limits within which the Monetary Policy Committee will determine the scale of its purchases each month; the proportion of Government and private sector assets purchased will be kept under review.
These changes do not affect the objectives of the Government’s monetary policy framework. The remit of the Monetary Policy Committee continues to be maintaining price stability, and subject to that, to support the Government’s economic policy, including its objectives for growth and employment. The symmetrical inflation target is 2 per cent. on the CPI measure, as specified in my letter to the Governor of the Bank of England of 11 March 2008.
The Government’s debt management objective remains to minimise, over the long term, the costs of meeting the Government’s financing needs, taking into account risk, while ensuring that debt management policy is consistent with the aims of monetary policy.
A copy of my letter to the Governor has been deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.
Communities and Local Government
Planning Applications (Killian Pretty Review)
The Minister for Housing (Margaret Beckett): Today I have published the Government’s formal response to the Killian Pretty review. Our response sets out our proposals to take forward an ambitious programme of measures to create a more proportionate and responsive planning application process. This will help businesses, developers, councils and the wider community, particularly in the current challenging economic environment.
The review was commissioned jointly by the Secretaries of State for Communities and Local Government and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to consider how the planning application process could be improved for the benefit of all involved. The final report, with detailed recommendations, was published in November 2008.
We welcome the Killian Pretty report as a strong foundation for the next stage in reforming the planning system. In response to its recommendations, we propose actions to improve the planning application process from start to finish, grouped into five main themes:
reducing the number of small scale developments that require full planning permission;
making the planning application process more efficient and effective for all involved;
improving the quality of information available to users of the planning application system;
improving local authority capacity and performance in the process; and
streamlining the national planning policy framework.
We propose a phased approach to reform, with immediate priority given to consulting on detailed proposals to
extend permitted development rights for businesses and public services and to streamline information requirements for applicants.
Clearly, successful development and implementation of further improvements to the planning application process requires the active involvement of key stakeholders, including local government, the profession and private sector. So a key part of the implementation programme is to work closely with stakeholders, in a range of ways, including the formation of a stakeholder sounding board, in addition to full public consultation on draft proposals, where appropriate.
A copy of the Government’s response is available in the Libraries of both Houses and on the Communities and Local Government website at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningand building/killianprettyresponse
Health
NHS Charges
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Dawn Primarolo): Regulations have today been laid before Parliament to increase national health service charges in England from 1 April 2009. There will be an increase in the prescription charge of 10 pence from £7.10 to £7.20 for each quantity of a drug or appliance dispensed.
The cost of a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC) will rise to £28.25 for a three-month certificate and to £104.00 for an annual certificate. PPCs offer savings for those needing four or more items in three months or more than 14 in one year.
Prescription charges are currently expected to raise some £435 million for the NHS in 2009-10. This figure excludes prescription charges collected by dispensing doctors, which are not collected centrally, but remain with primary care trusts.
Charges for elastic stockings and tights, wigs and fabric supports supplied through hospitals will be increased similarly.
Regulations have also been laid to increase certain NHS dental charges, and increase the value of NHS optical vouchers, from 1 April 2009.
The dental charge payable for a band one course of treatment will increase by 30 pence from £16.20 to £16.50. The dental charge for a band 2 course of treatment will increase by £1 from £44.60 to £45.60. The charge for a band 3 course of treatment will remain at £198.
Dental charges are expected to raise between £6 to £700 million for the NHS in 2009-10. The exact amount will be dependent upon the level and type of primary dental care services commissioned by primary care trusts and the proportion of charge paying patients who attend dentists and the levels of treatment they require.
This annual adjustment to dental charge rates is intended to sustain the expected contribution to the overall cost of dental services from patient charge income.
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