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The Department of Health DEL has increased by £214,306,000 made up of:
a transfer of £568,000 from the Ministry of Justice mainly for prison healthcare services;
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a transfer of £2,854,000 from the Home Office as the Department's share of a contribution to the migration impact fund;
a transfer of £280,000 to the Department for International Development for the healthy living fund;
a transfer from the Cabinet Office of £426,000 (administration costs) for services of the Parliamentary Counsel; and
an increase £210,738,000 for changes in accounting policies resulting from the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards.
In addition, the following internal transfers were made:
a transfer of £4,000,000 from programme to administration costs to meet additional costs arising from the Swine Flu programme, reform of Care and Support and the NHS Next Stage Review; and
a transfer from the capital budget to the revenue budget of £200,000,000 to meet existing commitments on pandemic flu.
The Department of Health's administration cost limit has increase by £4,426,000 as detailed above.
The change to the Food Standards Agency element of the DEL is due to:
an increase in the administration budget of £2,000,000 to fund reorganisation within FSA headquarters; and
a decrease of £3,500,000 programme cost identified savings in relation to research and campaign activity.
EU: Development Ministers Meeting
Statement
Lord Brett: My honourable friend the Minister of State for International Development (Gareth Thomas) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Informal Meeting of EU Development Ministers, organised by the Spanish Presidency, took place in Segovia, Spain, on 17-18 February. I represented the UK. The items covered were as follows.
The Millennium Development Goals Review Summit
This session focused on EU preparations for the MDGs Summit in New York in September 2010. The new Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, and the Presidency underlined the importance of the summit to galvanising support for poverty reduction before the 2015 MDG target date. The UK, alongside the Commission, a number of other member states and civil society representatives, argued that the EU should demonstrate global leadership through a comprehensive package that would include commitments to those goals most at risk, particularly maternal and child health, food security and education. The Commission welcomed the clear steer from Ministers and will reflect this in its proposals planned to be put to the May and June Foreign Affairs Councils. The overall EU position will then go to the June European Council for agreement by leaders.
I underlined the importance of honouring our EU Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments. While alternative financing mechanisms, including from the private sector, are likely to form an increasingly
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By special invitation, Norway presented on its work on combating tax evasion and tax havens. In response to the presentation and a Commission discussion paper, Ministers noted the importance of mobilising domestic resources in developing partner countries as a key step in reducing dependency on aid and harnessing finance for poverty reduction. In this context, economic growth, support to improving partner countries' tax systems, tackling illegal financial flows and corruption and addressing tax havens where noted as particularly important. The French led a call for the Presidency to ensure that innovative proposals on taxation and financing were discussed by both development and finance ministers given the shared interest. The Commission will draft a paper for Ministers at the May Foreign Affairs Council on enhancing work on tackling tax evasion in developing countries.
More effective EU development assistance
Alongside the quantity of aid, we discussed improving the quality of that aid. The Commission presented work on the improving the complementarity and co-ordination of EU aid.
The new administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Dr Shah, presented his priorities to the group. These were: a strong focus on the MDGs, particularly how technology can be deployed in support of development; maternal health; food security; and education. Dr. Shah emphasised his desire to build an effective and practical partnership with the EU on development issues, something already in evidence and underlined by the response to the Haiti earthquake response. EU Ministers welcomed his appointment and pledged to take forward this important relationship on a range of issues, not least the 2010 MDG Summit.
Ministers discussed the situation in Haiti, both in terms of immediate response and ensuring better coordination for the reconstruction. Edmund Mullet, UN Special Representative to Haiti, Kristalina Georgieva, the new EU Humanitarian Commissioner and Dr. Shah provided details of their own efforts and their assessment of need. I joined my EU colleagues in recognising the tireless efforts of UN staff, Commission and other aid workers in Haiti.
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I argued for a thorough review of the humanitarian system over the last five years, learning lessons from Haiti and other disasters and drawing up recommendations to improve future responses. This proposal gained support from a number of Ministers and this will help to build the growing consensus behind the review.
I also held a series of useful bilateral meetings discussing for example reform of the humanitarian system, Haiti, the MDGs and aid financing with amongst others: Dirk Neibel, the German Development Minister, Dr. Shah of USAID and Commissioner Piebalgs.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: DEL
Statement
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (David Miliband) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) will be increased by £94,354,000 from £2,246,893,000 to £2,341,247,000. The administration budget will be increased by £29,444,000 from £426,845,000 to £456,289,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table.
| Change (£,000) | New DEL (£,000) | ||||
| Voted | Non-Voted | Voted | Non-Voted | Total | |
* 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.
º 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:
take-up of £5,700,000 administration costs in respect of restructuring;a claim on the Reserve of £6,000,000 administration costs in respect of modernisation of the FCO;23 Feb 2010 : Column WS96
Government Actuary's Department: DEL
Statement
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.
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Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Government Actuary's Department total DEL will be increased by £22,000 from £403,000 to £425,000. Within the total DEL change the impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table.
| Change (£,000) | New DEL (£,000) | ||||
| 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 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:
an increase in salaries provision of £2,201,000 from £8,638,000 to £10,839,000;
an increase in other non-staff expenditure of £450,000 from £3,907,000 to £4,357,000;
moving to reporting under International Reporting Accounting Standards (IFRS) to record an increase of £15,000 for employer liability relating to untaken annual leave
an Increase in Appropriations in Aid provision of £2,665,000 from £12,497,000 to £15,162,000
an increase in Notional Audit costs of £21,000 from £35,000 to £56,000; and
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