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International Development
Departmental Expenditure Limits
The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell): Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for International Development's departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be reduced by £74,465,000 from £7,618,569,000 to £7,544,104,000.
Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
| Change | New DEL | £'000 | |||
| Voted | Non-voted | Voted | Non-voted | Total | |
| (1) Capital DEL includes items treated as resource in Estimates and Accounts but which are treated as Capital DEL in budgets. (2) Depreciation, which forms part of the resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL, since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of these assets would lead to double counting. | |||||
The change in the Resource element of DEL arises from:
Transfers out to other Government Departments-£74,730,000:
-£40,000,000 transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of support for British Council Official Development Assistance (ODA).
-£16,467,000 transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of the conflict prevention pool.
-£16,033,000 transferred to the Ministry of Defence in respect of the conflict prevention pool.
-£1,850,000 transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of the papal visit.
-£200,000 transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of police training in Tanzania.
-£180,000 transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of visas for Chernobyl victims.
The change in the Capital element of DEL arises from:
Transfers in from other Government Departments£265,000
£265,000 transferred from Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of the new Juba office build.
Income from Global Trade Liquidity loan to be paid into the Consolidated Fund (CFER) since it exceeds voted capital expenditure -£200,000,000
Justice
Serious Further Offence Review (Jon Venables)
The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Kenneth Clarke): Following the recall to custody and subsequent conviction of Jon Venables for the possession of indecent images of children, I commissioned Sir David Omand GCB to undertake an independent review of the post-release period of the case, covering Jon Venables' supervision from release on life licence in June 2001 until 24 February 2010, when he was recalled to custody.
The review has encompassed the general principles of a serious further offence (SFO) review but has also considered the wider lessons to be learnt for the future management of this and similar cases.
The terms of reference of the review were:
to review the supervision of the subject, from his release on life licence until his recall to custody, in order to establish whether he was effectively supervised, having regard to national standards and guidance and to the particular circumstances/challenges of his case;
in doing so, to consider the actions of his offender managers, their supervisors, the local police, the local MAPPA meetings and the role of the National Management Board; and
to establish whether everything was done which might reasonably have been expected of all agencies involved in supervising the subject to monitor his compliance with his licence conditions and to assess and manage any risk of harm which he presented.
Sir David Omand has completed the review and submitted his report to me.
I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses a copy of his report, which has been redacted in a few places to comply with the terms of the injunction amended in the High Court on 23 July 2010 (commonly known as the Butler-Sloss injunction), to take account of data protection and other confidentiality laws and to protect very sensitive operational policing information.
Sir David has concluded that Jon Venables was effectively and properly supervised at an appropriate level and frequency of contact, having regard to the particular circumstances of his case. Sir David also concludes that no reasonable supervisory regime would have been expected to detect his use of the computer to download indecent images.
I have accepted the review's recommendations, which will be taken forward by officials in the National Offender Management Service. Officials will provide me with an update on the implementation of the recommendations in due course.
Northern Ireland
Departmental Expenditure Limits
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr Owen Paterson): Subject to parliamentary approval the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) will be taking a 2010-11 winter supplementary estimate. The effect this will have is to decrease the NIO's Total DEL (excluding depreciation) by £1,169,047,000 from £1,203,205,000 to £34,158,000.
| Change | New DEL | ||||
| £'000 | Voted | Non-Voted | Voted | Non-voted | Total |
The change in total DEL of £1,169,047,000 relates to the devolution of policing and justice to the Northern Ireland Executive on 12 April 2010.
NI Consolidated Fund-Request for Resources (RfR) 2
The Northern Ireland Executive DEL is increased by £1,310,609,000 from
£9,515,937,000 to £10,826,546,000. Within the total DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table:
| Change £000 | New DEL £000 | |
This increase takes account of the Machinery of Government change that devolved policing and justice from the Northern Ireland Office and the Northern Ireland Courts Service to the Northern Ireland Executive on 12 April 2010.
Scotland
Departmental Expenditure Limits
The Secretary of State for Scotland (Michael Moore):
Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimates, the departmental expenditure
limit (DEL) for Scottish Government will be increased by £302,413,000 from £28,401,374,000 to £28,703,787,000. Within the total DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table:
| £'000 | Change | New DEL |
DEL provision for the Scotland Office will remain unchanged.
The increase in the Scotland DEL takes account of the following adjustments to the Scottish Government provision:
the take-up of end-year flexibility (EYF) by the Scottish Government amounting
to £302,621,000 (including £6,201,000 for depreciation and impairments);
Clear Line Of Sight classification changes-student loans of £4,500,000.
The DEL increase also includes the following changes:
a transfer of £1,180,000 from the Home Office in respect of the migration impact fund;
a transfer of £100,000 from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to Marine Scotland in respect of marine protected areas;
a transfer of £213,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families in
respect of the Child Trust Fund.
1. The Scotland Office DEL will remain unchanged.
1. Take-up of EYF by the Scottish Government of £302,621,000 (£153,000,000 near cash, £33,000,000 non-cash and £149,621,000 capital);
2. Clear Line Of Sight classification changes amounting to £4,500,000; and
3. Other transfers of £1,493,000 as follows:
a transfer of £1,180,000 from the Home Office in respect of the migration impact fund;
a transfer of £100,000 from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to Marine Scotland in respect of marine protected areas;
a transfer of £213,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families in respect of the child trust fund.
4. In addition, provision for depreciation increases by £6,201,000.
5. Within the total DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table:
| £'000 | Change | New DEL |
1. An increase in provision of £2,686,000 for NHS pensions (Scotland);
2. An increase in provision of £40,293,000 for teachers pensions (Scotland);
3. An increase in provision of £20,000,000 for NHS impairments;
4. A reduction in provision of £5,258,000 for student loans; and
5. A reduction in provision of £4,500,000 for Clear Line Of Sight classification changes-student loans.
1. A reduction of £177,737,000 for changes in cash to accrual adjustments.
There is an increase in the grant payable to the Scottish Consolidated Fund of £539,572,000 from £26,609,096,000 to £27,148,668,000.
Work and Pensions
Departmental Expenditure Limits
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith): Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Work and Pensions Resource departmental expenditure limit will decrease by £35,781,000 to £8,730,218,000 and the Capital departmental expenditure limit will remain unchanged at £243,052,000. The Administration budget will decrease by £31,185,000 to £6,076,705,000.
| Change(£'000) | New DEL (£'000) | |||||
| Voted | Non-voted | Total | Voted | Non-voted | Total | |
| (1)Depreciation, which forms part of the resource Departmental Expenditure Limit, is excluded from the total Departmental Expenditure Limit since the capital Departmental Expenditure Limit includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting. | ||||||
Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit
The change in the resource element of the departmental expenditure limit arises from:
Movements in Voted Expenditure
i. A budget transfer of £4,183,000 to the Department for Education to meet the Department's agreed share of the costs associated with the Child Poverty Innovation fund for 2010-11.
ii. A budget transfer of £413,000 to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for Regional Development Agency payments in relation to the School Gates project.
iii. A budget transfer of £1,200,000 to the Paydays and Periodicity for Pension benefits. Small up-front cost of £ 1.2 million required to be transferred to Non-voted AME.
iv. A transfer from Request for Resources 5 of £1,000,000 to cover the costs of Information Assurance for 2010-11.
v. A budget transfer of £1,000,000 to the Cabinet Office for the Department's contribution to Information Assurance for 2010-11.
vi. A Machinery of Government change of £28,985,000 to the Cabinet Office. This is to bring together and consolidate in the Cabinet Office all the various strands of work on transparency, open data, Government websites and digital engagement.
vii. A transfer to Request for Resources 3 of £1,000,000 to cover the costs of Information Assurance for 2010-11.
Movements in Non-Voted Expenditure
viii. A decrease in non-voted expenditure of £16,000 offset by an increase in voted expenditure of £16,000 relating to decreased spend of the Independent Living Fund.
ix. A decrease in non-voted expenditure of £14,495,000 offset by an increase in voted expenditure of £14,495,000 relating to decreased spend of the Pensions Regulator.
x. A decrease in non-voted expenditure of £226,000 offset by an increase in voted expenditure of £226,000 relating to decreased spend of the Pensions Advisory Service.
xi. A decrease in non-voted expenditure of £75,000 offset by an increase in voted expenditure of £75,000 relating to decreased spend of the Office of the Pensions Ombudsman.
xii. An increase in non-voted expenditure of £37,214,000 offset by an increase in voted income of £37,214,000 relating to the increase of income for administering National Insurance Benefits.
Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit
The net nil movement in the capital element of the Departmental Expenditure Limit arises from:
Movements in Non-Voted Expenditure
xiii. A decrease in non-voted capital expenditure of £18,508,000 offset by an increase in voted capital expenditure of £18,508,000 relating to decreased spend of the Pensions Regulator.
xiv. An increase in non-voted capital expenditure of £12,000 offset by an decrease in voted capital expenditure of £12,000 relating to increased spend of the Pensions Advisory Service.
The movement in the Administration Cost limit arises from the changes to the Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit as noted in items iii to vii.
Active at 60 (Community Agents)
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb): Today, I am pleased to announce that the Government are providing £1 million to help older people keep active and make the most of their later lives. This money is available for local community groups or organisations within 30 selected areas(1) to bid for small grants of between £250 and £3,000.
Each local community group within the selected areas will recruit at least one Active at 60 Community Agent who will volunteer their time to help motivate, encourage and organise people within their own communities to become more active, physically, socially and mentally. Active at 60 Community Agents will be from the communities they are helping, and will have the flexibility to design innovative ways of encouraging and inspiring activity to help improve people's later lives.
Through the Active at 60 Community Agent initiative those people who are more at risk of social isolation in their later lives will be supported in becoming more active, independent and positively engaged with society. Active at 60 Community Agents will help people within their communities:
take the first step in trying something new
understand the benefits they can get from being more active, engaged and contributing to their communities
build social contacts to help make being active part of their routine
This project is part of the Government's ambition to build a big society in which power is transferred from Whitehall to local communities, and organisations and voluntary groups play a far greater role in their community.
(1) The following areas have been selected on the basis of level of deprivation and age structure, while ensuring a broad split across the English regions, encompassing both rural and urban areas:
Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Hackney, Sandwell, Kingston Upon Hull, Nottingham, Bournemouth, Southend-on-Sea, Brighton and Hove, Redcar and Cleveland, Wirral, Doncaster, Cornwall and The Isles of Scilly, East Sussex, Norfolk, Herefordshire, County of Lincolnshire, Enfield, Knowsley, Blackpool, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham, Salford, Hartlepool, Tower Hamlets, Wolverhampton, South Tyneside, Rochdale, Sunderland.
Work Capability Assessment
The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chris Grayling):
The Government are pleased to announce the publication of Professor Malcolm Harrington's independent review of the Work Capability
Assessment (WCA). This is a substantial and thorough review of the WCA which the Government fully endorse. Alongside the review, the Government are publishing their response which sets out how we will implement the review's recommendations.
A central part of the Government's plans to reform the welfare state involves action to tackle incapacity benefit dependency. More than 2.2 million people in Britain today are on incapacity benefits and many have been abandoned, with little or no contact from the welfare state for as long as a decade or more.
Through the WCA we seek to change this, and to try to find a better way forward for those people. From April 2011 we will put 1.6 million people, all of those on incapacity benefits who are not close to retirement, through an independent medical assessment, the WCA. Those found fit for work or with the potential to return to work will be given support to help them do so, those who are deemed unable to work will continue to receive full support.
We believe that the principles of the WCA are right but we are clear that the process of assessment must be fair and honest about people's potential. We do not wish to see people who are genuinely unable to work put in a position where they are expected to do so.
Professor Harrington's review sets out how we can refine the system and significantly improve the process so that it continues to be fit for purpose. We intend to implement these changes as quickly as possible. Many will be put in place in time for the first assessments from the national migration in April 2011.
We will continue to review the WCA and to make further changes where necessary. We have invited Professor Harrington to continue in his current role as independent reviewer for another year and to make further recommendations to us as appropriate.
Copies of both documents are available in the Vote Office.
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