§ Mr. EtheringtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what changes he plans to announce to cash limits and running cost limits within his responsibility for 1998–99. [58113]
§ Mr. MudieSubject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the cash limit for Class IX, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services), Vote 3 (Employment Service), and Vote 4 (Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England), will be amended as follows:
£ Class Vote Existing cash limit Change New cash limit IX 1 10,356,420,000 25,182,000 10,381,602,000 IX 3 1,739,859,000 9,999,000 1,749,858,000 IX 4 131,641,000 -13,000,000 118,641,000 The cash limit for Class IX, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) will be increased by £25,182,000 from £10,356,420,000 to £10,381,602,000. This is the net effect of virements of £3,900,000 and £695,000 from non-cash limited sections of the Vote to sections A and B, £10,000,000 additional cover for capital loans in grant-maintained schools following the ESA95 classification changes, a transfer of £13,000,000 from OFSTED (Class IX, Vote 4) in connection with the Books for Schools Initiative, and a transfer of £13,000 from the Department of Health (Class XI, Vote 2) for the early years policy; offset by transfers of £1,350,000 to the Department of Culture, Media and Sports (Class X, Vote 1) for Dance and Drama under the interim funding scheme, of £201,000 to the Welsh Office (Class XIV, Vote 2) for the University for Industry, of £250,000 to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions in respect of capital costs of Government Offices, and of £180,000 and £445,000 to the Scottish Office (Class XIII, Vote 3) in connection with educational qualifications and University for Industry respectively. We have also taken this opportunity to take up 409W £264,657,000 (offset by the matching receipts from the EC) of the European Structural Funds end year flexibility announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 14 July 1998, Official Report, columns 131–36.
The cash limit for Class IX, Vote 3 (Employment Service) will be increased by £9,999,000 from £1,739,859,000 to £1,749,858,000. This increase results from the take up of £10,000,000 running costs end year flexibility, offset by an increase in appropriations in aid due to New Deal recoveries. The running costs limit on Vote 3 (within of the control total) has been increased by £19,500,000 from £758,173,000 to £777,673,000 as a result of the end-year flexibility take up and a virement of £9,500,000 from capital to pay for IT services now supplied by an external provider.
The non-Voted cash limit DfEE/LACAP has also been increased by £958,000 from £43,982,000 to £44,940,000 as a result of the take up of end-year flexibility as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on the 14 July 1998, Official Report, columns 131–36.
Increases will be offset by transfers and charges to the reserves and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.