§ 4.57 p.m.
§ Lord CockfieldMy Lords, I beg leave to repeat a Statement made by my right honourable and learned friend the Chief Secretary in another place. The Statement reads as follows:
"With permission Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the measures to be taken to implement the decisions announced by my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the 7th July to restrain public expenditure in the current year.
1564 "The gross reduction will be about £670 million. The net total will be somewhat less than this because the lower cash limits will lead to less underspending. But as the Chancellor said on 7th July it will be at least £500 million net. The detailed changes in cash limits and the external financing limits of the nationalised industries are being published in the Official Report."
That ends the Statement, but perhaps I might be permitted to add that, for your Lordships' convenience, copies of the list of revised cash limits will be placed in the Printed Paper Office.
Lord Bruce of DoningtonMy Lords, we thank the noble Lord, Lord Cockfield, for repeating the Statement made in another place. I am afraid that I have to pursue exactly the same point that I made in regard to the previous Statement. This Statement arrived in my hands not before three o'clock but at twenty minutes to four o'clock, which gave us even less time to make adequate preparations.
The Statement has one considerable disadvantage in so far as Members of this House are concerned; it is that the Statement itself gives no indication of what is contained in the detailed changes. It does not even endeavour to classify them. In fact, the Statement itself adds very little to the Statement made in another place on 7th July. In view of the fact that not all of your Lordships always have an opportunity of going to the Printed Paper Office, it might have been better to have had the Statement reprinted in the Official Report for this place as well as in that for another place. Thereby, it would have been made more easily available to Members generally.
The Statement in its generality only goes to show that the Conservative manifesto was very similar to a number of insurance policies that were issued in the past before some of the remedial legislation was put through, in that the small print on the back of the Conservative manifesto was not made very explicit to the electorate at large. One therefore wonders how far those who were blind enough in the election to vote for the party opposite were fully aware of the import of the small print and that the Government, once elected, intended to make such cuts in cash limits as are now proposed.
One has had little opportunity of going through the Statement which is going to be circulated, except that one knows that so far as the health and personal services are concerned there is to be a cut of some £108 million. There are also in the case of the Department of Transport large cuts on roads, very large cuts in overseas aid, cuts in the Manpower Services Commission of some £22 million, and indeed significant cuts in the field of education and in relation to universities. It is clear that when Parliament reassembles we must have an opportunity of discussing the implications of these cuts in detail. Among other things which we shall be questioning the Government upon is exactly how, and in accordance with what series of priorities, these particular cuts were put forward. We shall want to be assured that they were not made on the basis of the strength of various representations made by competing departments, or departments that did not compete for that matter, but were made on the basis of 1565 an organised plan in which the Treasury did not play a leading part.
May I ask a question which arises specifically from the magnitude of the cuts in the National Health Service? Is the noble Lord aware that, speaking in Edinburgh on 31st May, the Prime Minister is reported as underlining her support for the planned NHS increases in the next three years—£700 million this year, £800 million next year and £700 million in 1985/86. She is quoted as saying:
… all budgeted for in a sound financial policy; not a promise but a firm commitment.Will the noble Lord tell the House whether the existing cuts enable that commitment to be fulfilled?
§ Lord EzraMy Lords, I should like to join with the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of Donington, not only in expressing concern at the late arrival of the Statement, but even more so at its very exiguous nature. It would have been helpful to us who have to speak on this Statement if we had at least had a summary of some of the reductions to be made, drawing attention to their nature, instead of having the detailed statement put in our hands at this stage.
Your Lordships must be well aware of the grave concern expressed on 7th July when the Chancellor of the Exchequer made in another place his Statement which has given rise to this Statement. It was felt generally in the responsible press and media that this was a panic measure for which no previous indication whatsoever had been given. It was explicitly stated and made known to be Government policy that they would avoid changes in cash limits during the currency of a financial year. As someone who has been for years at the receiving end of cash limits, I can assure your Lordships that nothing is more disturbing than, having laid out your policies to observe limits which were negotiated and agreed upon at a certain stage, then to have them arbitrarily adjusted. So the first question I would put to the noble Lord the Minister is whether we can have any assurance that this arbitrary change in cash limits will not become from now on a regular feature of the Government's conduct of our financial affairs.
The other sad aspect of this affair is that we are, in a patchy way, beginning to emerge from the recession, but a measure of this sort, totally unexpected, a possible precursor of other such measures at short notice, is bound to weaken the slow movement towards recovery. Indeed, as one looks at the list of the areas where the cuts have been made, these are undoubtedly going to have an adverse impact on the move forward towards recovery. It is disturbing also to note some of the areas in which these cuts have been made. If I may refer to the answer given to a question in another place, I would say that it is disturbing to note, at a time when there is a strong feeling that the administration of justice should be strengthened—and of course the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor is involved in this—his department has been cut-back.
§ Lord DenhamMy Lords, I think we are getting a little bit into speeches. There is a certain amount more leeway given to people who are speaking from the Front Benches opposite, but I think we are developing 1566 rather more into speeches than is really proper for a Statement.
§ Lord EzraMy Lords, I regret to be so lengthy, but it is mainly because we were given so little information that I am making a little more of a probing effort. I will certainly now limit my remaining remarks. They are these. I believe, and I would put it to the noble Lord the Minister, that we should have been better served if we had had a longer period for mature reflection on this issue. The sudden introduction of these changes, with a degree of uncertainty as to where we are going in financial policy, has been not only unexpected but I believe harmful. I think some words of reassurance about how these matters will be dealt with in the future would be most helpful.
§ Lord CockfieldMy Lords, may I start by endeavouring to meet one of the points raised by the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of Donington. I should be only too happy, if it were the wish of your Lordships' House, to include the figures in the Official Report, so that they will be available to everybody in the way that he requests. What this present Statement does, and this is why it is so brief, is that it simply puts the flesh on the bones of the original Statement made on 7th July in another place by my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and which was repeated in your Lordships' House by my noble friend Lord Gowrie. Most of the points raised by the noble Lord, Lord Ezra, were appropriate to that Statement and not to the present Statement. Indeed, if he refers back to the exchanges which took place on that occasion he will find that most of the points he raised were raised then and answered by my noble friend Lord Gowrie. There is very little that I can add.
The really important point is this. We are not in any way cutting the total of public expenditure which was laid down in the February White Paper. What we are doing is ensuring that expenditure is kept within the limits which we then determined. This was done before the election and all these cards were on the table. There is no question, as the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of Donington, tries to suggest, that people were not aware of the facts. The figures were published in enormous detail in the public expenditure White Paper. What has happened in the last few months is that expenditure has been rising above the levels which were then determined by Parliament. We are now reining back public expenditure to ensure that it keeps on course. Far from this representing any change in policy, it represents exactly the opposite; namely, it is an adherence to a policy which was clearly stated, agreed by Parliament at the time and reinforced since. That is the general background to the situation.
The proposition was that, in broad principle, cash limits should be reduced by 2 per cent. on the non-pay element and 1 per cent. on the pay element. This was also made very clear indeed in the Statement on 7th July and the present Statement shows how that comes out, in fact, in actual figures for individual departments. There are one or two instances where there has been some modification in applying those limits, and I shall refer in a moment to the question of health and social services to which the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of Donington, referred. Also, within each 1567 departmental total, freedom has been left to the individual Secretary of State or Minister to decide how much of the adjustment should fall on one programme as distinct from another. It is for this reason that the figures are set out very fully in the Statement which will now be included in the Official Report.
The position with regard to health is that there was an overrun on the family practitioner service. That is not cash limited. The adjustment on the hospital services cash limit is less than the indicated percentages and the difference has been made up by the reductions in the drug bill which have already been announced by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Services. The position is that, taking the cash limited and non-cash limited services together, total expenditure on the health services remains unchanged, that expenditure on the health services has increased, in real terms, since 1979 and is still increasing.
I suggest that the right thing now is for the noble Lord to follow the point that he himself very validly made; namely, that he should study the figures and come back again on individual points when he has had the opportunity to do so. I am not trying in any way to be unsympathetic and I entirely appreciate how appallingly difficult it is to master this enormous mass of figures in a short period of time, but it was essential and very right that, the broad statement of policy having been made on 7th July, the very detailed figures which involve an enormous amount of detail should then have been made available to both Houses before the Recess, and that is what we have done.
§ 5.14 p.m.
§ Lord DiamondMy Lords, does the noble Lord realise that he has succeeded in doing nothing other than cause maximum confusion as a result of the various statements which he has been making on behalf of the Government as regards public expenditure and cash limits? It has become quite impossible to understand why the noble Lord, on behalf of the Government, insists that public expenditure is not being cut back and that all that is being cut back are the payments we make which form the body of public expenditure. It is quite impossible to understand what the logic is behind the noble Lord's statement. Surely when public expenditure was agreed originally and published in the White Paper, to which reference has been made, that public expenditure—
§ Lord DenhamMy Lords—
§ Lord DiamondMy Lords, the Chief Whip should wait until the end of the sentence. I am asking a question in a very familiar form. He should realise that a most important Statement has been made with totally inadequate time to consider it. We have been given a great wadge of figures which no one can possibly comprehend in time, at a time when there are no Chief Secretaries left in the other place to argue adequately, on behalf of the Oppostition, against what the Government are doing. In all these circumstances and with no promise of a debate it is inevitable that one should seek clarification.
1568 The clarification I am seeking—and that is the function of this procedure, I hope the Chief Whip will take note—is this. What on earth do the Government mean by maintaining that they are cutting cash limits only and are not cutting public expenditure? Is it the case that those cash limits which have gone beyond control are only those which are, to use a phrase which the Minister will understand, in respect of open-ended commitments? Is it the case that because of the Government's failure to contain unemployment the open-ended expenditure and the cash paid for unemployment relief has gone so far beyond expectations that other programmes have had to bear the brunt of the under-estimation of those open-ended commitments?
I hope I have made it clear that I am seeking clarification on why the Government are maintaining their stance that there is no reduction in public expenditure but only in cash limits when common sense tells us that these cash limits are provided in order to sustain and support the public expenditure figures agreed and adopted by Parliament in the first place. How on earth can this apparent irreconcilable state of affairs exist?
§ Lord CockfieldMy Lords, I gather that the serried ranks of ex-Chief Secretaries in this House are likely to be strengthened in the not too distant future. Perhaps that will compensate the noble Lord, Lord Diamond, for the fact that the ranks of ex-Chief Secretaries in another place have thinned out very considerably.
The only other comment I make on this is, of course, that public expenditure is primarily a matter for another place and if the noble Lord feels that the Opposition is inadequately represented in another place that is not a matter on which I feel it would be legitimate for me to comment, as regards either numbers or, indeed, quality.
I come to a number of points of substance raised by the noble Lord. Public expenditure broadly falls into two categories. There is cash limited public expenditure and there is public expenditure which is not cash limited. Cash limited public expenditure amounts to about 50 to 60 per cent, of the total. The balance tends to be what is described, often not too accurately, as demand led; that is, expenditure that one cannot estimate in advance. What happened in the early part of this year—this was very fully explained by my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer so there is no mystery about it—is, first, that non-cash limited expenditure has increased. It has increased over a substantial field, not only in certain of the social security benefits but also, as I mentioned earlier in reply to a point raised by another noble Lord, in the family practitioner service. Another example is agricultural support, where we have no control over the figure because this emerges from the operations of the common agricultural policy.
Expenditure in those directions having increased, we then have another situation, namely—as the noble Lord will remember from the days when he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury—there is a substantial figure inserted in the Estimates every year for shortfall, that figure representing the amount by which the cash limits are likely to be underspent. Over the years 1569 departments have become more adept, agile, or able in spending up to their cash limits, and we find a situation where the indication at the moment is that, against a figure of £1.2 billion estimated shortfall, it looks as though the shortfall will be in the region of £600 million only. It is because of those two factors that we have had to make adjustments in the cash limits to ensure that the total amount of public expenditure remains on course. Far from causing the maximum confusion, we are in fact following a very clearly stated and very fully explained policy.
§ Lord StrabolgiMy Lords, I wonder whether I could ask the noble Lord, or perhaps his noble friend the Minister for the Arts who I see has just joined us, what is to happen about the national museums and galleries. I see that there are to be very substantial cuts, I think amounting to over £100,000 for the British Museum, and cuts to the Victoria and Albert Museum of a similar amount. There is to be a cut of £1 million to the Arts Council, of which the Chairman of the Arts Council has complained very bitterly in the press. Also there are to be cuts of over £1 million to the libraries. I should like to ask how is it contemplated that these cuts will be carried out. Will they be to the purchase grants, to the overheads, or what? Are the cuts to the
§ Revised cash limits are shown in the following two tables.
§ Five other cash limit changes are included in the table, as follows:
- (i) £1,500,000 has been added to the cash limit for Class X, Vote 3, Universities etc. (Department of Education and Science), to allow for part of the costs of pay awards to clinical academics.
- (ii) £4,219,000 has been added to the cash limit for Class XII. Vote 5, administration and miscellaneous services (Department of Health and Social Security), to allow for the additional administrative costs arising from changes in social security benefits announced in the Budget. The net effect of this change and the 7th July measures on this cash limit is a reduction of £2,000,000.
§ These two increases will be charged to the Contingency Reserve, and will therefore not add to the planning total of public expenditure,
- (iii) £250,000 has been added to the cash limit for Class XI, Vote 1, health and personal social services, England. There is a corresponding reduction in the cash limit on new towns' expenditure DoE/NT1. This is to allow a transfer of resources from Peterborough new town to the district health authority. There is no net increase in public expenditure.
- (iv) The cash limit for Class I, Vote 1, Defence—pay etc. of the armed forces and civilians, stores, supplies and miscellaneous services, has been reduced by £370,000 to allow for a transfer to Class II, Vote 2, international subscriptions (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), which is not subject to a cash limit.
- (v) £15,000,000 has been added to the cash limit for Class VIII, Vote 7, Urban Development Corporations, England, to allow for a transfer of urban programme resources originally earmarked for urban development grant within the non-voted cash block DoE/LA1. DoE/LA1 has been reduced by the same amount, so there is no net increase in public expenditure. The effect on the cash limit for Class VIII, Vote 7 of this change and the 7th July reduction is a net increase; all the other changes shown in the table are reductions.
| CENTRAL GOVERNMENT CASH LIMITS 1983–84, FOLLOWING THE REDUCTIONS ANNOUNCED BY THE CHANCELLOR ON JULY 7th | |||||||
| Table 1: Voted cash limits | |||||||
| Class | Vote | Accounting department | Description of expenditure | Cash Limit as at 7th July £ thousand | Reduction £ thousand | Revised cash limit £ thousand | |
| I | 1 | Ministry of Defence | Pay etc. of the armed forces and civilians, stores, supplies and miscellaneous services | 6,123,554 | 60,370 | 6,063,184 | |
| 2 | Ministry of Defence | Defence procurement | 7,556,780 | 160,000 | 7,396,780 | (a) | |
| 4 | Property Services Agency | Defence accommodation services etc. | 915,815 | 15,000 | 900,815 | ||
| 5 | Ministry of Defence | Dockyard services | 426,825 | 5,000 | 421,825 | ||
| II | 1 | Foreign and Commonwealth Office | Overseas representations: diplomatic, consular and other foreign and commonwealth services | 333,509 | 4,000 | 329,509 | |
| 3 | Foreign and Commonwealth Office | British Broadcasting Corporation: external services | 77,082 | 500 | 76,582 |
§ libraries to include the cuts to the new British Library which is being built? What is to happen to conservation, and so on? Are these not the first cuts that have ever been made since the war to our national museums and galleries? What is to be the effect of them? Do the noble Lord and his noble friend remember the position of the British Museum? Are they going to guarantee that the nation's heritage and art treasures will not be prejudiced by this kind of reduction?
§ Lord CockfieldMy Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Strabolgi, raises a large number of specific points. While the museums and galleries have had to make their contribution to the correction of the threatened overspend, my noble friend Lord Gowrie has been able to limit that contribution to 1 per cent, in general in respect of arts bodies. This is due to a temporary deferment of the building start on the theatre museum. My noble friend is very hopeful that, in spite of this, a start on the theatre museum in the fiscal year may prove to be possible. So far as the other points made by the noble Lord are concerned perhaps I or, more appropriately, my noble friend, might write to him.
§ Following is the information referred to in the above Statement:
1571| Class | Vote | Accounting department | Description of expenditure | Cash Limit as at 7th July £ thousand | Reduction £ thousand | Revised cash limit £ thousand | |
| 4 | Foreign and Commonwealth Office | British Council | 40,383 | 500 | 39,883 | ||
| 6 | Cabinet Office | Other external relations: secret service | 71,500 | 715 | 70,785 | ||
| 8 | FCO: Overseas Development Administration | Overseas aid | 1,027,363 | 19,691 | 1,007,672 | ||
| 9 | FCO: Overseas Development Administration | Overseas aid administration | 25,444 | 210 | 25,234 | ||
| III | 3 | Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food | Other agricultural and food services | 97,824 | 2,932 | 94,892 | |
| 5 | Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food | Support for the fishing industry | 26,703 | 500 | 26,203 | ||
| 6 | Forestry Commission | Forestry | 59,361 | 879 | 58,482 | ||
| 7 | Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food | Departmental administration | 193,198 | 350 | 192,848 | ||
| IV | 2 | Department of Trade and Industry | Miscellaneous support services | 32,492 | 650 | 31,842 | |
| 4 | Department of Trade and Industry | Export promotion, trade co-operation, corporate and consumer affairs | 196,377 | 200 | 196,177 | ||
| 5 | Department of Energy | Industrial support | 85,283 | 1,680 | 83,603 | ||
| 6 | Department of Trade and Industry | Scientific and technological assistance | 330,252 | 7,933 | 322,319 | ||
| 7 | Department of Energy | Scientific and technical assistance: nuclear energy | 210,291 | 2,850 | 207,441 | ||
| 9 | Export Credits Guarantee Department | International trade: export credit services and insurance of investment overseas (central services) | 25,855 | 223 | 25,632 | ||
| 11 | Registry of Friendly Societies | Registry of Friendly Societies | 1,695 | 18 | 1,677 | ||
| 12 | Office of Fair Trading | Office of Fair Trading | 6,609 | 53 | 6,556 | ||
| 13 | Department of Employment | Labour market services | 498,072 | 3,791 | 494,281 | ||
| 16 | Department of Employment | Manpower Services Commission | 1,230,791 | 22,036 | 1,208,755 | ||
| 17 | Department of Employment | Administration | 186,722 | 2,472 | 184,250 | ||
| 18 | Department of Industry | Central and miscellaneous services | 75,653 | 150 | 75,503 | ||
| 19 | Department of Energy | Administrative and miscellaneous services | 24,046 | 206 | 23,840 | ||
| 22 | Department of Energy | Sale of British Gas Corp. oil interests | 4,000 | 80 | 3,920 | ||
| 23 | Department of Employment | Health and Safety Commission | 87,873 | 100 | 87,773 | ||
| VI | 1 | Department of Transport | Roads, etc., England | 732,308 | 14,869 | 717,439 | |
| 2 | Department of Transport | Transport services and central administration | 114,660 | 1,578 | 113,082 | ||
| 4 | Department of Transport | Driver and vehicle licensing | 99,896 | 1,086 | 98,810 | ||
| VIII | 2 | Department of the Environment | Central environment services, etc. | 118,202 | 1,500 | 116,702 | |
| 4 | Department of the Environment | Royal palaces, royal parks, historic buildings, ancient monements and the national heritage | 72,423 | 340 | 72,083 | ||
| 5 | Department of the Environment | Central administration and environmental research | 170,313 | 1,508 | 168,805 | ||
| 7 | Department of the Environment | Urban Development Corporation, England | 66,645 | 14,004(b) | 80,649 |
| Class | Vote | Accounting department | Description of expenditure | Cash Limit as at 7th July £ thousand | Reduction £ thousand | Revised cash limit £ thousand | |
| IX | 1 | Lord Chancellor's Department | Administration of justice: England and Wales | 86,155 | 468 | 85,687 | |
| 2 | Northern Ireland Court Service | Administration of justice: Northern Ireland | 7,942 | 121 | 7,821 | ||
| 7 | Home Office | Services related to crime, treatment of offenders, community and miscellaneous services | 39,850 | 651 | 39,199 | ||
| 8 | Home Office | Prisons: England and Wales | 537,245 | 6,912 | 530,333 | ||
| 9 | Home Office | General protective services and civil defence: England and Wales | 79,550 | 1,013 | 78,537 | ||
| 11 | Home Office | Central and administrative services | 164,698 | 1,468 | 163,230 | ||
| 12 | Treasury Solicitor's Department | Law charges, England and Wales | 10,817 | 94 | 10,723 | ||
| 13 | The Crown Agent | Law charges, Scotland | 12,013 | 110 | 11,903 | ||
| X | 1 | Department of Education and Science | Schools | 180,089 | 5,786 | 174,303 | |
| 3 | Department of Education and Science | Universities, etc. | 1,441,559 | 23,100 | 1,418,459 | ||
| 4 | Department of Education and Science | Central administration | 47,318 | 856 | 46,462 | ||
| 12 | Trustees of British Museum | British Museum | 12,536 | 125 | 12,411 | ||
| 13 | Office of Arts and Libraries | Science Museum | 7,728 | 77 | 7,651 | ||
| 14 | Office of Arts and Libraries | Victoria and Albert Museum | 10,456 | 104 | 10,352 | ||
| 15 | Trustees of Imperial War Museum | Imperial War Museum | 4,140 | 41 | 4,099 | ||
| 16 | Trustees of National Gallery | National Gallery | 6,797 | 68 | 6,729 | ||
| 17 | Trustees of National Maritime Museum | National Maritime Museum | 4,080 | 41 | 4,039 | ||
| 18 | Trustees of National Portrait Gallery | National Portrait Gallery | 1,789 | 18 | 1,771 | ||
| 19 | Trustees of Tate Gallery | Tate Gallery | 5,375 | 54 | 5,321 | ||
| 20 | Trustees of Wallace Collection | Wallace Collection | 791 | 8 | 783 | ||
| 21 | Office of Arts and Libraries | Art, Arts Council, etc. | 109,359 | 1,059 | 108,300 | ||
| 22 | Office of Arts and Libraries | Libraries: England | 46,299 | 1,022 | 45,277 | ||
| XI | 1 | Department of Health and Social Security | Health and personal social services: England | 8,539,250 | 108,108(c)(d) | 8,431,142 | |
| XII | 5 | Department of Health and Social Security | Administration and miscellaneous services | 713,022 | 2,000 | 711,022 | |
| XIII | 3 | Privy Council Office | Parliament and Privy Council: Privy Council Office | 917 | 8 | 909 | |
| 4 | HM Treasury | Economic and financial administration | 42,876 | 386 | 42,490 | ||
| 5 | Customs and Excise | Economic and financial administration | 321,011 | 2,964 | 318,047 | ||
| 6 | Inland Revenue | Economic and financial administration | 751,919 | 3,904 | 748,015 | ||
| 10 | Department for National Savings | Economic and financial administration | 143,347 | 1,413 | 141,934 | ||
| 12 | Management and Personnel Office | Central management of the Civil Service, etc. | 30,885 | 261 | 30,624 | ||
| 13 | HM Treasury | Central management of the civil service: computers and telecommunications | 11,380 | 107 | 11,273 | ||
| 14 | HM Treasury | Civil service catering services | 301 | 6 | 295 | ||
| 15 | Public Record Office | Records, registrations and surveys | 8,496 | 38 | 8,458 |
| Class | Vote | Accounting department | Description of Expenditure | Cash Limit as at 7th July £ thousand | Reduction £ thousand | Revised cash limit £ thousand | |
| 16 | Office of Population Censuses and Survey | Records, registrations and surveys | 23,889 | 194 | 23,695 | ||
| 17 | Land Registry | Records, registrations and surveys | 65,140 | 663 | 64,477 | ||
| 18 | Charity Commission | Records, registrations and surveys | 4,865 | 46 | 4,819 | ||
| 19 | Cabinet Office | Other services | 13,996 | 106 | 13,890 | ||
| 20 | The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner and Health Service Commissioners | Other services | 1,696 | 12 | 1,684 | ||
| 21 | Her Majesty's Stationery Office | Stationery and printing: Payments to the trading fund | 7,386 | 148 | 7,238 | ||
| 23 | Ordnance Survey | Records, registrations and surveys | 17,275 | 381 | 16,894 | ||
| XIV | 1 | Property Services Agency | Civil accommodation repayment | 278,168 | 4,677 | 273,491 | |
| 3 | Property Services Agency | Other civil accommodation services | 165,207 | 6,611 | 158,596 | ||
| 4 | Central Office of Information | Publicity | 49,081 | 780 | 48,301 | ||
| 7 | Government Actuary's Department | Other common services | 1,030 | 6 | 1,024 | ||
| 8 | Paymaster General's Office | Other common services | 10,360 | 109 | 10,251 | ||
| XV | 2 | Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland | Agricultural services and fisheries: Scotland | 58,889 | 946 | 57,943 | |
| 3 | Scottish Economic Planning Department | Regional and general industrial support: Scotland | 132,276 | 2,476 | 129,800 | ||
| 4 | Scottish Economic Planning Department | Manpower Services Commission, Scotland | 140,077 | 2,308 | 137,769 | ||
| 6 | Scottish Development Department | Roads, transport and environmental services, etc. | 148,003 | 4,852 | 143,151 | ||
| 14 | Scottish Home and Health Department | Prisons, hospitals and community health services, etc., Scotland | 1,360,496 | 16,382(d) | 1,344,114 | ||
| 15 | Scottish Education Department | Education, libraries, arts and social work: Scotland | 112,744 | 921 | 111,823 | ||
| 17 | Trustees of National Library of Scotland | National Library of Scotland | 2,782 | 38 | 2,744 | ||
| 18 | Board of Trustees National Galleries of Scotland | National Galleries of Scotland | 2,709 | 42 | 2,667 | ||
| 19 | Board of Trustees National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland | National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland | 799 | 11 | 788 | ||
| 21 | Scottish Record Office | Scottish Record Office | 1,445 | 12 | 1,433 | ||
| 22 | Registrar General's Office: Scotland | General Register Office for Scotland | 3,895 | 43 | 3,852 | ||
| 24 | Scottish Office | Scottish Office administration | 94,225 | 510 | 93,715 | ||
| XVI | 1 | Welsh Office | Tourism, roads and transport, housing, other environmental services, education, libraries, arts, health and personal social services. Wales | 717,123 | 7,039(d) | 710,084 | |
| 4 | Welsh Office | Manpower Services Commission | 72,335 | 1,193 | 71,142 | ||
| 5 | Welsh Office | Agricultural services, support for the fishing industry, regional and industrial development, Wales | 56,215 | 3,737 | 52,478 | ||
| 7 | Welsh Office | Other services | 31,189 | 283 | 30,906 |
| Class | Vote | Accounting department | Description of expenditure | Cash Limit as at 7th July £ thousand | Reduction £ thousand | Revised cash limit £ thousand | |
| XVII | 1 | Northern Ireland Office | Law, order, protective and miscellaneous services | 389,715 | 5,000 | 384,715 | |
| XVIII | 15 | Crown Estate Office | Crown Estate Office | 1,681 | 14 | 1,667 |
§ Notes:
§ (a) The four cash-limited defence votes are each separate cash limits, but by agreement with the Treasury they arc managed as a global cash limit.
§ (b) In the case of this vote the £14,004,000 is an increase rather than a decrease to the cash limit. The increase of £15,000,000 a transfer from DOE/LAI is partly offset by the reduction following the July 7th announcement.
§ (c) Expenditure on the NHS as a whole in England will remain at planned levels.
§ (d) In addition to the reductions on cash limited health expenditure there will be a saving of £25m in health expenditure resulting from savings in the NHS drugs bill agreed to by the pharmaceutical industry in the current year.
| Table 2: Non-voted cash Limits | |||||
| Department | Cash block | Description of expenditure | Cash limit as at 7th July £ million | Reduction £ million | Revised cash limit £ million |
| Bank of England | BoE 1 | Bank of England administrative costs in respect of note issue, exchange equalisation account and debt management | 77.9 | 1.1 | 76.8 |
| Department of the Environment | DoE/HCl | Capital expenditure in England on housing financed through the Housing Corporation | 630.0 | 9.6 | 620.4 |
| Department of the Environment | DoE/LAl | Capital expenditure in England by local authorities on roads and transport, housing, schools, further education and teacher training, personal social services, the urban programme and other environmental service. | 2,964.7 | 15.0 | 2,949.7 |
| Department of the Environment | DoE/NT 1 | Capital expenditure in England by new towns on housing, roads and commercial and industrial investment | 67.3 | 5.3 | 62.0 |
| Scottish Office | SO/LA2 | Capital expenditure in Scotland on housing by local authorities, new towns, the Scottish Special Housing Association and on schemes financed by the Housing Corporation, and industrial and commercial investment by new towns. | 447.1 | 2.7 | 444.3 |
| Welsh Office | WO/LA 1 | Capital expenditure in Wales by local authorities, new towns and the Housing Corporation on roads and transport, housing, schools, further education and teacher training, personal social services, and other environmental services, and by the Land Authority for Wales. | 299.5 | 0.9 | 298.6 |
| Northern Ireland Departments | NID 1 | Services analogous to Great Britain services covered by cash limits | 1,975.4 | 6.9 | 1,968.5 |
§ Note:
§ Figures may not add due to rounding.
1579§ Revised external financing limits (EFLs) for nationalised industries in 1983–84 are set out in the following table.
| £ million cash 1983–84(1) EFL | |
| National Coal Board | 1,195 |
| Electricity (England and Wales) | -418 |
| North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board | -2 |
| South of Scotland Electricity Board | 274 |
| British Gas Corporation | -43 |
| British National Oil Corporation(2) | -1 |
| British Steel Corporation | 321 |
| British Telecom | -117 |
| Post Office | -51 |
| National Girobank | -½ |
| British Airways Board | 1 |
| British Airports Authority | 32½ |
| British Railways Board | 953 |
| British Waterways Board | 41 |
| National Bus Company | 65 |
| Scottish Transport Group | 18½ |
| British Shipbuilders | 158 |
| Civil Aviation Authority | 21 |
§ (1) All EFLs have been rounded as appropriate.
§ (2) The figure for BNOC is not a limit. BNOC's trading results are likely to fluctuate from year to year given the uncertainties of oil trading.
§ There are also revised EFLs for certain other bodies. These are as follows:
| £ million cash 1983–84(1) EFL | |
| Water Authorities (England and Wales) | 359½ |
| Urban Development Corporations | 81(2) |
§ (1) All EFLs have been rounded as appropriate.
§ (2) Includes a reduction of 2 per cent. (£1.3 million) in the previously announced limit and a transfer to the Urban Development Corporation of £15 million of resources previously earmarked for urban development grants within the local authority cash limit.