§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy whether any changes will be made to his Department's cash limits for 1990–91; and if he will make a statement.
647W
§ Mr. WakehamSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimates, the following changes will be made.
The cash limit for class V, vote 2 will be increased by £27,033,000 from £298,562,000 to £325,595,000. This extra provision sought includes £27,141,000 for UKAEA programmes mainly for additional requirements on decommissioning and radioactive waste management operations, together with restructuring costs related to the thermal reactor safety programme and to the closure of the Winfrith reactor. Extra provision of £3,700,000 to meet an increased contribution towards British Coal's topping cycle project and £34,000 to cover residual Oil Pipelines Agency costs is also required. The increases sought will be partially offset by savings of £3,842,000 on class V, vote 2.
The cash limit for class V, vote 3 will be increased by £586,000 from £40,117,000 to £40,703,000. This extra provision is sought to meet an increase of £655,000 on the running costs limit (from £41,970,000 to £42,625,000), including additional costs arising from the implementation of the report of the public inquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster; £81,000 for additional information technology requirements; and £20,000 for increased costs in connection with the Ocean Odyssey fatal acccident inquiry. The increases sought will be partially offset by savings of £120,000 together with an increase of £50,000 in appropriations in aid on class V, vote 3.
The increases are within the forecast outturn for the planning total published today in the statistical supplement to the 1990 autumn statement.