§ Mr. HindTo ask the Attorney-General whether any changes will be made to the serious fraud office's cash limit and running cost limit for 1988–89.
§ The Attorney-GeneralSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the cash limit on class XI, vote 12, will be increased by £606,000 from £5,480,000 to £6,086,000 and the running costs limit by £606,000 from £4,174,000 to £4,780,000. It was originally hoped that the serious fraud office, in line with other departments, would be able to restrict its expenditure to the provision agreed during the 1987 public expenditure survey. It is not clear that this will not be possible, the PES provision having necessarily been agreed at a stage in the office's development when precise information about its costs—particularly those relating to accommodation—was not available. No net increase to public expenditure results from this change as the cash limit increase will be charged to the 1988–89 reserve.