8. Supplementary memorandum submitted by the Northern
Ireland Office in relation to the Winter Supplementary Estimate
2008/09
NORTHERN IRELAND OFFICE (NIO) - RESPONSE TO NIAC
LETTER REQUESTING FURTHER EXPLANATION OF WINTER SUPPLEMENTARY
ESTIMATE (WSE) 2008/09
Specific Questions:
1. DEL budgetary position
Would you provide a table which compares the DEL
budgetary position available to the NIO for the current year,
relative to the last two prior years and future years of the 2007
Comprehensive Spending Review?
Departmental Response:
The table below details outturn for 2006/07 and 2007/08,
WSE position for 2008/09 and planned DEL for 2009/10 and 2010/11.
The figures for 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11 exclude End Year
Flexibility (EYF) which will be drawn down as needed in future
supplementary estimates.
| £'000s | Outturn
| Outturn | WSE | Plans
| Plans |
| 2006/07 | 2007/08
| 2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11
|
| Resource DEL | 1,251,784 |
1,343,288 | 1,238,364 | 1,172,330
| 1,160,563 |
| Near Cash | 970,231
| 979,232 | 928,012
| 927,933 | 927,818
|
| Non Cash | 281,553
| 364,056 | 310,352
| 244,397 | 232,745
|
| Capital DEL | 72,416 | *8,639
| 71,903 | 71,903 | 71,903
|
| Less Depreciation | (65,552)
| (52,674) | (94,750) | (98,678)
| (99,833) |
| Total DEL | 1,258,648 | 1,299,253
| 1,215,517 | 1,145,555 | 1,132,633
|
* Please note Capital DEL in 2007/08 includes a large capital
receipt due to the disposal of the Juvenile Justice Centre land.
2. Compensation Agency
The Estimate shows a £20m increase in grants
to the compensation Agency as a result of rephasing of non-cash
provisions from 2009-10 and 2010-11 into 2008-09 (Estimate, p
381).
a) What do these provisions relate to?
b) What factors led to the need to provide in
2008-09 rather than later years, and what has changed since publication
of the Main Estimate?
c) Is this additional funding in 2008-09 treated
as a call on the Reserve?
Departmental Response:
d) The provisions relate to compensation claims
received by the Compensation Agency.
e) At the beginning of 2008-09 - after the publication
of the Main Estimate - the Compensation Agency amended the methodology
used to provide for and value compensation claims. As a result,
the budget required for provisions increased in 2008/09 but reduced
in future years. The new methodology allows the Agency to provide
more accurately for claims as they are received and will facilitate
better forecasting.
f) No, this additional funding in 2008-09 is
not treated as a call on the Reserve. It is a rephasing of the
Agency's CSR07 budget within the existing total.
3. Police Pensions
The Estimate Memorandum explains that there was
an increase of £11.396m to police pensions and that this
was to bring the allocation in line with the CSR07 settlement.
Why was the allocation agreed in CSR07 not set out in the Main
Estimate?
Departmental Response:
The allocation agreed in CSR07 was not set out in
the Main Estimate because at the time of publication up-to-date
information was not available from the Government Actuary's Department
(GAD). However following receipt of an updated valuation from
GAD the full amount of funding required in-year was identified
and actioned through the Winter Supplementary Estimate.
4. Cash Grants
g) Why were the following increases in cash grant
necessary, and why were they not anticipated at the time of the
Main Estimate?
h) Why haven't the non-voted elements of the
DEL budget in the Estimate increased to reflect increased expenditure
of these bodies?
| £m |
| Police | 41.656
|
| Police Ombudsman for NI | 0.295
|
| Probation Board for NI | 1.800
|
| NI Human Rights Commission | 0.015
|
Departmental Response:
i) The increases in cash grant relate to a revision of the
cash required by the Department's NDPBs to fund their capital
DEL budgets. The Main Estimate accurately reflected resource
and capital DEL budgets but the final cash requirement was not
firmed up until the Winter Supplementary Estimates.
j) As outlined in a) above, the non-voted elements
of the DEL budget were accurately reflected in the Winter Supplementary
Estimate. The change in the cash grant was to bring grant-in-aid
in line with the budget provision.
30 January 2009
|
