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The Department of Health DEL has reduced by £4,630,000 made up of:

a transfer to the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and the Health Service Commissioner for England to allow for the change in responsibility for handling NHS complaints.

The Department of Health’s administration cost limit remains unchanged at £219,163,000.

The change to the Food Standards Agency element of the DEL is due to: a transfer of £400,000 from programme into capital increasing it from £631,000 to £1,031,000 to fund infrastructure investment; anda token increase in the FSA’s administration cost.

Disabled People: Independent Living Strategy

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My right honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Jonathan Shaw) has made the following Ministerial Statement.

On 3 March, the Government published the five-year cross-Government Independent Living Strategy. The strategy sets out a series of government commitments aimed at ensuring that disabled people have choice and control over the support they need to live their everyday lives.

The strategy was produced in partnership with disabled people, and we need to ensure that disabled people are actively involved in making the strategy a reality and checking that good progress is being made. Consequently, the launch of the strategy saw the start of a consultation to seek views on how best to do this.

The consultation closed on 20 June, and I am pleased to announce that I am today placing copies of the Government’s response to this consultation in both House Libraries.

Following the consultation, and the further involvement of disabled people in the development of the Government’s response, the Government have decided to implement the following steps to make sure disabled people are actively involved in the implementation and monitoring of the strategy:

establish an Independent Living Scrutiny Group to review progress on implementing the strategy;develop a web-based and print resource to support disabled people’s involvement in local strategic partnership boards;work with Equality 2025 to look at how best to use and develop existing networks to form a “network of networks”, creating a two-way channel for communication between the Government and disabled people; examine some of the options, for example, specific courses suggested by respondents for building leadership capacity; andwork to help disabled people’s organisations benefit more from new opportunities to build capacity in the third sector.

The Government’s response will be available on the Office for Disability Issues website later today at http://www.odi.gov.uk/working/independentlivingstrategy.asp.

ECOFIN

The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My honourable friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Ian Pearson) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

On 21 November 2008, I represented the UK at the Budget Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN).

Finance Ministers agreed to adopt preliminary draft amending budgets 10 (as amended by the Commission during the course of negotiations) and 11 to the 2008 EC budget. These amend the 2008 budget respectively to reflect latest implementation capacity, thus reducing the level of funding required from member states in 2008, and to mobilise the EU solidarity fund for Cyprus following the recent drought there.

Finance Ministers agreed to adopt amending letters 2 (as amended by the Commission to include budgetary aspects relating to the proposed food facility for developing countries), and 3 to the preliminary draft budget for 2009. These reflected the latest information on agricultural market prices and other developments, and a budgetary transfer to cover the costs of a new reflection group as called for by the October European Council.

During a conciliation meeting between the Council and the European Parliament, agreement was reached on the 2009 EC budget and on the financing for the proposed food facility. The agreement establishes total payment levels of €116.1 billion (0.89 per cent of

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EU GNI). The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on its own Second Reading on 18 December, after which the 2009 EC budget will be formally adopted.

Five joint statements relating to the budget were also agreed at budget ECOFIN. These concerned the financing of the food facility, the implementation of cohesion policy and EU agencies. The Government are supportive of these statements, which affirm the co-ordination and visibility of Community development assistance and call for sound financial management and budget discipline in the areas that they concern.

Health: Working-age Population

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Rt. Hon. James Purnell) has made the following Statement.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health (Alan Johnson) and I have today published the Government’s response to Dame Carol Black’s review of the health of Britain’s working-age population, Working for a Healthier Tomorrow.

Dame Carol’s review, published on 17 March 2008, built upon the growing evidence that work is generally good for health and that the mounting costs of ill health are unacceptable, whether for individuals and families, for businesses, or for society as a whole.

Her analysis brought into focus, as never before, the scale of the economic cost of ill health and its impact not just on work but on human life. She laid the foundation for a consensus around a new vision for health and work, setting out radical and far- reaching proposals to prevent illness; make early access to work-related health support available to all; and improve the health of the workless so that everyone with the potential to work has the support they need to do so.

Today we are responding in full to Dame Carol’s recommendations. Our response Improving Health and Work: Changing Lives sets out our proposals. It includes a series of pilots and programmes with the potential to redefine the ambition of health and employment support in Britain, shifting the focus of welfare beyond helping people into work to helping them stay there, and further widening the focus of national healthcare from treatment to prevention and early intervention.

Our proposals include:

changing the paper-based “sick note” to an electronic “fit note”; piloting a “Fit for Work” service;creating a National Centre for Working-Age Health and Well-being;establishing a network of Health, Work and Well-being Co-ordinators;introducing an occupational health helpline; extending NHS Plus; anda review of the health and well-being of the NHS.

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Dame Carol set out a challenging vision for improving the health of the working-age population. Ultimately, responsibility rests with a range of people: government; employers; trade unions; healthcare professionals; and individuals themselves. Today, with the publication of our response, we are setting out the Government’s real commitment to this agenda and how we will play our part.

Copies of Improving Health and Work: Changing Lives will be placed in the Library of the House.

Higher Education: Loans, Grants and Fees

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (Lord Young of Norwood Green): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property (David Lammy) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

On 29 October 2008, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills announced that the Government are making extra money available, totalling £100 million in steady state, to meet the higher than expected demand for student support in 2009-10 and beyond. This will enable the Government to maintain their intention that two-thirds of eligible students should receive either the full grant of £2,906 or a partial grant in 2009-10. We also expect that our commitment for one-third of eligible students to receive a full grant will be exceeded—under the new package, we anticipate that 40 per cent of students may be eligible for a full grant.

This means that students with household incomes ranging from £18,360 to £50,020 will be eligible for higher levels of grant than in 2007-08, while those with incomes ranging from £18,360 to £57,708 will be eligible for a more generous package of grant and loan support than in 2007-08. Amendment regulations to the Education (Student Support) (No. 2) Regulations 2008 are being laid today.

My predecessor as Minister of State for Higher Education, Bill Rammell, placed a memorandum in the Library on 13 May 2008 giving details of the increased loan, grant and fee rates for the 2009-10 academic year, in line with forecast price increases. The detailed tables in that memorandum gave income thresholds for the partial maintenance grant and for the non-means-tested element of the student loan, which have now been revised. I am therefore placing an updated memorandum in the Library which makes clear the levels of support available to new entrants in 2009-10, as well as giving tables showing support for continuing students.

Revenue and Customs: Winter Supplementary Estimate

The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My right honourable friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Stephen Timms) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

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Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the HM Revenue and Customs total DEL will be increased by £91,338,000 from £4,448,459,000 to £4,539,797,000. Within the total 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
Resource DEL	107,50	-43,662	4,082,544	347,739	4,430,283
Of which:
Administration Budget*	107,540	-43,662	4,329,802	-	4,329,802
Near-cash in RDEL	107,500	-43,662	3,742,662	381,887	4,124,549
Capital**	27,500	-	284,866	3,648	288,514
Less Depreciation***	-	-	-179,000	-	-179,000
Total DEL	135,000	-43,662	4,188,410	351,387	4,539,797

*The total of “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 DEL arises from:

Modernisation Fund drawdown of £62,500,000 administration near cash costs to modernise and transform HMRC;

Near cash administration costs draw down of non-voted DUP of £43,662,000 taken up as voted provision to facilitate improvements to key operational activities;

£1,520,000 administration near cash costs transferred from Cabinet Office in respect of Parliamentary Counsel Office;

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£77,000 administration near cash costs to the Home Office in respect of transfer of five information officers;

£45,000 administration near cash costs transferred to HM Treasury in relation to the contribution towards the Centre of Expertise in Sustainable Procurement;

£40,000 near cash programme costs transferred to Cabinet Office for Government Secure Zone;

£21,000 administration near cash costs in relation to one post being transferred to HM Treasury; and

£1,000 increase in respect of VOA administration.

The change in the administration budget arises from the changes detailed in the resource element above excluding the £40,000 programme transfer to the Cabinet Office.

The change in the capital element of DEL arises from:

£27,500,000 capital draw down of Modernisation Fund.

Treasury: Winter Supplementary Estimate

The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My honourable friend the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Angela Eagle) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

Subject to parliamentary approval of the winter supplementary estimate, HM Treasury's DEL will be increased by £1,318,000 from £220,233,000 to £221,551,000 and the administration budget will be increased by £1,223,000 from £168,202,000 to £169,425,000 with no change to the capital DEL. The impact on resources and the administration budget is set out in the following table:

	Change		New DEL
	Voted	Non-voted	Voted	Non-voted	Total
Resource	7,748,000	-6,430,000	194,646,000	26,905,000	221,551,000
of which:
Administration budget *	7,653,000	-6,430,000	165,112,000	4,313,000	169,425,000
Near cash in RDEL*	5,811,000	-6,430,000	182,824,000	37,805,000	220,629,000
Capital**	-	-	4,800,000	2,221,000	7,021,000
Less: Depreciation***	-	-	-9,190,000	-	-9,190,000
Total	7,748,000	-6,430,000	190,256,000	29,126,000	219,382,000.

* The total of “administration budget” and “near cash in resource DEL” figures may well be greater than total resource DEL, due to 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.

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