Cash Limits (Hansard, 4 February 1993)

§ Mr. Lang

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates I intend to make changes to 10 voted cash limits and in addition the two non-voted cash blocks. These include increases in304W provision to reflect the increased resources for capital expenditure under the special measures announced as part of the autumn statement in November 1992.

1. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 2, Agricultural services, agricultural grants and fisheries, Scotland will be decreased by £4,000,000 from £126,684,000 to £122,684,000.
2. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 3: Training Programmes, Roads and Transport Services and Industrial Support, Scotland, will be increased by £17,522,000 from £713,689,000 to £731,211,000. An additional £8,500,000 is allocated to the Trunk Roads programme, £6,460,000 to Scottish Enterprise, £1,530,000 to Highlands and Islands Enterprise, £700,000 to Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd. and £332,000 to the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative.
3. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 5: Housing and Environmental Services, Scotland, will be increased by £260,613,000 from £423,453,000 to £684,066,000. Of this £250,139,000 will be used to increase grant-in-aid provision to Scottish Homes to enable the premature repayment of National Loans Fund debt. There will be a transfer of £9,361,000 from SO/LA2 to enable Scottish Homes to continue to improve housing quality within Scotland and provide assistance to Housing Associations for the purpose of acquiring stock from local authorities and new towns. £1,109,000 of the cash limit increase will be allocated to Historic Scotland of which £1,009,000 relates to an increase in provision for Historic Building repair grants, £54,000 to reflect part take-up of entitlement to end-year flexibility for running costs as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 15 July 1992 (Official Report, columns 698–702) and £55,000 to reflect a transfer of functions from Class XV, Vote 19. There is also a small increase of £4,000 to meet an unanticipated shortfall in Appropriations-in-Aid from repayments of loans and grants by first-time buyers.
4. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 12: Law, Order, Miscellaneous Health and Social Work Services, Scotland, wil be increased by £2,326,000 from £247,302,000 to £249,628,000. This includes an increased allocation to the Scottish Prison Service to bring forward a number of capital projects and take-up in full of £520,000 running costs and £803,000 End-Year Flexibility entitlement as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 15 July (Official Report, Cols. 698–702).
5. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 13: Education, Arts and Libraries, Scotland, will be increased by £400,000 from £262,615,000 to £263,015,000. The additional resources will assist special schools and Jordanhill school with buildings expenditure.
6. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 16 Scottish Record Office will be increased by £258,000 from £3,871,000 to £4,129,000 for the take-up of end-year felxibility entitlement as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 15 July 1992 (Official Report, Cols. 698–702) and a transfer of £27,000 from Property Holdings.
7. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 19, Scottish Office Administration will be decreased by £1,375,000 from £152,875,000 to £151,500,000.
8. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 17, The Registrar General for Scotland will be decreased by £560,000 from £7,912,000 to £7,352,000. This reduction takes into account the take-up of capital End-Year Flexibility entitlements amounting to £640,000 as announced by the Chief Secretary on 15 July 1992 (Official Report, Cols. 698–702).
9. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 20: Revenue and rate support grants, Scotland will be decreased by £431,000 from £3,506,200,000 to £3,505,769,000.
10. The cash limit for Class XV, Vote 25: Hospital, Community Health, Family Health (Part) and Other Health Services, Scotland will be increased by £12,033,000 from £2,601,445,000 to £2,613,478,000, for increased capital expenditure and also in respect of the part of an NHS Trust's charges that reflects the 305 Trust's liability to remunerate its capital debt to the Consolidated Fund. In addition there will be transfers from this Vote of £6,408,000 to class XV Vote 15 (to take account of changes in the requirements for GP practice fundholders and the external financing limit for NHS trusts) and of £42,000 to class XV Vote 12; and a transfer to this Vote of £47,000 from class XIII, Vote 3.
11. The non-voted cash limit SO/LA1, which covers non-housing capital expenditure by local authorities, is to be increased by £31,462,000 from £622,125,000 to £653,587,000. This increase reflects £20,850,000 of Special Measures (including Water, Transport, Education, Police and Social Work) and take-up in full of £10,612,000 capital End-Year Flexibility entitlement as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 15 July (Official Report, Columns 698–702.
12. The non-voted cash limit SO/LA2, which covers housing capital expenditure by local authorities and capital expenditure by New Towns, is to be increased by £23,704,000 from £267,981,000 to £291,685,000. This increase reflects allocation of £20.000,000 additional provision in the measures announced in November and take-up of £13,065,000 End-Year Flexibility as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 15 July 1992. It also takes account of the transfer of £9,361,000 to Vote 5 (see 3. Above).

The change to the overall Scottish Office running costs limit will be a decrease of £774,000 from £287,346,000 to £286,572,000.

The increases represented by these changes will be charged to the Reserve or offset elsewhere and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.