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The change in the resource element of the DEL of £11,873,000 arises from (i) a transfer of £30,000,000 programme from Resource to Capital for the Environment Agency; (ii) a £30,000,000 increase to programme following an agreement with HM Treasury to bring forward part of next year's ring-fenced disallowance provision to cover a Rural Payments Agency (RPA) disallowance issue that has materialised this year; (iii) a transfer of £827,000 programme to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy responsibility; (iv) a transfer of £12,500,000 programme from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, returning funding Defra previously provided for the Carbon Capture and Storage Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) studies and (v) a transfer of £200,000 administration from the Cabinet Office for the Office of Parliamentary Counsel.

There has also been a transfer within the resource element of the DEL of £355,481,000 from voted to non-voted. This relates to increases in income and expenditure for the EU-funded Schemes. This change is DEL-neutral, but the expenditure is classed as voted, whereas the income is classed as non-voted consolidated fund extra receipts.

There has been a transfer of the remaining £26,000,000 Departmental Unallocated Provision from non-voted to voted to cover in part an RPA disallowance issue that has materialised this year. The remainder of the transfers within Resource DEL between voted and non-voted primarily relate to budget transfers from the core department (voted) to the department's Non-Departmental Public Bodies (non-voted).

The change in the capital element of the DEL of £29,735,000 arises from (i) a transfer of £30,000,000 from Resource to Capital for the Environment Agency and (ii) a transfer of £265,000 to the Department of Energy and Climate Change for anaerobic digestion of manure and food waste demonstration projects.

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There has also been a transfer within the capital element of the DEL of £8,040,000 from voted to non-voted relating to budget transfers from the core department (voted) to the department's Non-Departmental Public Bodies (non-voted).

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: New Evidence Investment Strategy

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Davies of Oldham): My honourable friend the Minister for Rural Affairs and Environment (Dan Norris) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I have arranged for copies of Defra's new Evidence Investment Strategy (EIS) which provides an agenda to prioritise and manage Defra's investment in evidence from 2010 to 2013 and beyond to be placed in the Libraries of the House. It highlights the need to focus efforts on the interlinked challenges of climate change, protecting ecosystems and developing a sustainable food supply. The strategy will ensure that Defra has access to the best evidence when developing and implementing policies. The strategy is available at http://www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/science/how/strategy.htm.

Defra's Chief Scientific Adviser led a detailed review of Defra's evidence activities and worked in collaboration with teams across Defra and the evidence landscape (including the executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies and key external stakeholders) to develop the strategy. The EIS will build on the progress made by Defra's first evidence strategy, Our approach to Evidence and Innovation for 2005-2008, encouraging better use of evidence for policymaking.

The strategy contains a number of recommendations including the importance of working with others, both internally and through partnerships with the research councils and other government departments, and developing skills, expertise and capabilities which will improve Defra's gathering and use of evidence.

Department for International Development: DEL

Statement

Lord Brett: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development (Douglas Alexander) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Department for International Development's departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be reduced by £33,098,000 from £6,757,774,000 to £6,726,607,000.

Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table.

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	Change (£,000)		New DEL (£,000)
	Voted	Non-voted	Voted	Non-voted	Total
Resource DEL	243,797	-276,895	4,542,361	836,065	5,378,926
of which:
Administration budget*	3,341	-3,341	159,950	-	159,950
Near-cash in RDEL	233,047	-266,145	4,437,111	846,815	5,283,926
Capital DEL**	9,750	-9,750	1,365,750	-	1,365,750
Less Depreciation***	1,931	-	-18,069	-	-18,069
Total DEL	255,478	-286,645	5,890,542	836,065	6,726,607

* 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 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 net change in the Resource element of DEL arises from:

Additions

£280,000 transferred from the Department of Health in respect of International Health Links Funding Scheme.

Reductions

£77,000 transferred to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in respect of payments to locally engaged staff in Iraq;£5,500,000 transferred to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in respect of the Returns and Reintegration Fund;£25,959,000 transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of the Conflict Prevention Pool;£1,832,000 transferred to the Ministry of Defence in respect of the Conflict Prevention Pool; and£10,000 transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of the Low Carbon High Growth Strategic Programme Fund.

There is no net change in the Capital element of DEL.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: DEL

Statement

The Minister for Trade and Investment (Lord Davies of Abersoch): My right honourable friend the Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills (Pat McFadden) has today made the following Statements.

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills' DEL will be increased by

23 Feb 2010 : Column WS79

£1,240,523,000 from £21,829,701,000 to £23,070,224,000 and the Administration budget will be increased by £1,220,000 from £357,473,000 to £358,693,000.

Within the DEL change, the impact on Resources and Capital is as set out in the following table.

	Change (£,000)		New DEL (£,000)
	Voted	Non-Voted	Voted	Non-Voted	Total
Resource	279,431	531,819	-3,235,584	22,886,573	19,650,989
of which:
Administration* budget	1,220		358,693		358,693
Near cash in Resource DEL*	-67,660	464,711	-5,004,730	22,570,097	17,565,367
Capital	277,146	152,127	-209,708	3,628,943	3,419,235
Less Depreciation**	-1,985	-47,320	-61,433	-248,599	-310,032
Total	554,592	636,626	-3,506,725	26,266,917	22,760,192

* 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:

RfR1

a Reserve claim of £85,000,000 of voted non-cash for the Automotive Assistance Programme;a Reserve claim of £48,500,000 for Enterprise Fund Guarantees; utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £21,004,000 for Automotive Assistance Programme non-cash;utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £41,500,000 for Enterprise Fund Guarantees non-cash;transfer of £500,000 to United Kingdom Trade and Investment in respect of an inward investment conference; transfer of £450,000 of non-voted expenditure to the Office of Fair Trading in respect of the Consumer White Paper; reclassification of £6,300,000 from Strategic Investment Fund capital to resource in relation to the New Industries, New Jobs agenda;virement of £1,100,000 from the non-voted RfR1 Departmental Unallocated Provision to RfR3 for increasing the number of apprenticeships by 35,000;virement of £11,700,000 from the non-voted RfR1 Departmental Unallocated Provision to non-voted expenditure by the Learning and Skills Council for increasing the number of apprenticeships by 35,000;virement of £4,000,000 from support for the Post Office to non-voted expenditure by the Learning and Skills Council (RfR3);

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virement of £3,144,000 from Enterprise Fund Guarantees to non-voted expenditure by the Learning and Skills Council (RfR3); virement of £10,000,000 from Enterprise Fund Guarantees to Student Support (RfR3);utilisation of £16,000,000 from the non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision for voted Student Maintenance Grants (RfR3); utilisation of £5,632,000 from the non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision for non-voted expenditure by the Learning and Skills Council (RfR3); virement of £13,000,000 from non-voted expenditure by the Technology Strategy Board to the RfR2 Science Research Councils; virement of £188,000 Government Skills and £46,000 Further Education Improvement (both RfR3) to the non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision;reclassification changes resulting from the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards of £800,000 in non-voted expenditure for the Regional Development Agencies; reclassification changes resulting from the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards of £400,000 in non-voted expenditure for the Competition Commission;reclassification changes resulting from the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards of £90,000 for Acas; reclassification changes resulting from the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards of £12,427,000 for Capital for Enterprise Fund; reclassification changes resulting from the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards of £912,000 for the National Measurement Office; andreclassification changes resulting from the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards of £2,000,000 for the Insolvency Service.

Also within the change to resource DEL, the changes to the Administration budget are (RfR1):

transfer of £1,020,000 from the Cabinet Office in respect of the Parliamentary Counsel Office;transfer of £25,000 from the Cabinet Office in respect of the Skills Strategy; andreclassification changes resulting from the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards of £175,000 for UK Trade and Investment.

RfR2

utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £45,464,000 for non-voted expenditure by the Medical Research Council;utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £20,536,000 for non-voted expenditure by the Natural Environment Research Council;virement of £100,000 from RfR3 to non-voted expenditure by the Research Councils in respect of the wellbeing project;

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virement of £50,000 from non-voted expenditure by Research Councils to voted Research-based Initiatives;virement of £250,000 from voted Public Sector Research Establishments expenditure to non-voted expenditure by Research Councils;virement of £594,000 from voted Science and Society expenditure to non-voted expenditure by Research Councils.virement of £13,000,000 from the Technology Strategy Board (RfR1) to non-voted expenditure by the Research Councils; andreclassification changes resulting from the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards of £1,406,000 in non-voted expenditure for the Science Research Councils.

RfR3

a Reserve Claim of £50,000,000 non-cash for Tuition Fee Loans;a Reserve Claim of £83,000,000 non-cash for Maintenance Fee Loans; utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £22,800,000 for the 6 month training offer to unemployed via non-voted expenditure of the Learning and Skills Council;utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £225,376,000 to meet student support pressures;utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £20,000,000 for the delivery of the Level 3 training entitlement to young people via non-voted expenditure of the Learning and Skills Council;utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £11,700,000 to provide 35,000 additional apprenticeships via non-voted expenditure of the Learning and Skills Council; utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £15,000,000 for voted non-cash relating to Career Development Loans;utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £64,000,000 for non-voted non-cash relating to the Learning and Skills Council;utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £3,000,000 for expansion of the Personal Career Development Loans scheme via non-voted expenditure of the Learning and Skills Council;utilisation of End Year Flexibility of £4,624,000 for Aim Higher Challenge Initiative;utilisation of £16,000,000 from the non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision for voted Student Maintenance Grants; increase in voted receipts for the Learning and Skills Council of £338,877,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families for 6th Forms, apprenticeships, Entry to Employment, Education Maintenance Allowance, offset by an increase in the Learning and Skills Council non-voted resource DEL; increase in voted receipts for the Higher Education Funding Council for England of £895,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to help kick start activity on Shared Services initiatives

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