§ Mr. Patrick Jenkinasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he intends to take in view of the failure so far to achieve the announced cut of £5 million in the Department of Health and Social Services for 1976–77.
§ Mr. Ennals:I assume that the right hon. Gentleman is referring to the reduction of £5 million which my Department was required to make in its planned expenditure on administration costs in the financial year 1977–78 as a step towards achieving savings of £14.4 million in 1978–79.
As the sum of £5 million has in fact already been withdrawn from the financial provision which would otherwise have been made for the current year, failure to achieve the cut could be regarded as occurring only if the economy measures introduced fail to result in departmental spending being contained within the reduced figure. I am confident that this will not be the case. The question of "failure" does not therefore arise.