HC Deb 11 February 1999 vol 325 cc412-4W
Mr. MacShane

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what changes will be made to the cash and running costs limits for his Department, the Office of Telecommunications, and the Office of Gas Supply, and to the external financing limit of the British Coal Corporation. [71254]

Mr. Byers

Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimates(i) the cash limit for class V vote 1—Department of Trade and Industry: programmes and administration—will be increased by £136,634,000 from £1,286,873,000 to £1,423,507,000. This net increase results from:

  1. (a) an increase of £135,200,000 in the provision for Nuclear Liabilities;
  2. (b) a transfer of £1,851,000 from the Department of Trade and Industry's Science Vote (Class V Vote 2) in respect of the Teaching Company Scheme;
  3. (c) a transfer of £34,000 in running costs from the Cabinet Office (Class XVIII Vote 1).
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  4. (d) a transfer of £8,000 from the Department of the Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor (Class VIII Vote 6).offset by:
  5. (e) a transfer of £334,000 to the Department of Social Security (Class XII Vote 3) to cover the costs of a new service in respect of the setting up of a helpline for the National Minimum Wage;
  6. (f) a transfer of £115,000 to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Class VI Vote 5) to cover the capital requirements of the Government Offices;
  7. (g) a transfer of £10,000 to the Home Office (Class VII Vote 1) in respect of the enforcement costs of the Telecommunications Data Protection Directive.
In addition, the Department will be increasing its gross expenditure provision for Sections A, B, C, D, G and L by £35,216,000, which will be offset by a corresponding increase in appropriations in aid, following the ruling that VAT receipts for contracted out services should not be carried on a net sub-head. Within this total, the gross running costs limit for the Department of Trade and Industry will be increased by £34,000 from £360,241,000 to £360,275,000. The increase of £135,200,000 in the provision for Nuclear Liabilities will be offset by reductions of £52,200,000 in the provision for Coal Liabilities in Section B of the Vote and £83,000,000 in the External Financing Limit of BNFL. It will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure; (ii) the cash limit for Class V Vote 2—Department of Trade and Industry: science—will be reduced by £1,038,000 from £1,368,497,000 to £1,367,459,000. This net reductions results from:
  1. (a)a transfer of £1,851,000 to the Department of Trade and Industry's Programmes and Administration Vote (Class V Vote 1) in respect of the Teaching Company Scheme;offset by:
  2. (b) a transfer of £813,000 from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Class IV Vote 2) to the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in respect of redundancy costs at BBSRC Institutes;
 In addition, the Department will be increasing its gross expenditure provision for Section K by £20,000, which will be offset by a corresponding increase in appropriations in aid, following the ruling that VAT receipts for contracted out services should not be carried on a net sub-head. (iii) the cash limit for Class V Vote 8—Office of Telecommunications—will be increased by £1,000 from £2,000 to £3,000 in order to implement the ruling that VAT receipts for contracted out services should not be carried on a net sub-head. In addition, the running costs limit will be increased by £17,000 from £10,949,000 to £10,966,000 which will be offset by a reduction of £17,000 in the capital expenditure provision. The token £1,000 increase will be charged to the Reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure; (iv) the cash limit for Class V Vote 9—the Office of Gas Supply—will be increased by £1,000 from £1,000 to £2,000 and the running costs limit will be increased by £1,582,000 from £11,124,000 to £12,706,000. This is in order to meet the costs of handling an increase in calls to the Consumer Helpline service; to undertake a review of internal organisation; to meet increased legal costs; and to implement the ruling that VAT receipts for contracted out services should not be carried on a net sub-head. There will be an offsetting increase of £2,349,000 in appropriations in aid to cover the costs of funding these additional items. The token £1,000 increase will be charged to the Reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure; In addition to these changes, the External Financing Limit of the British Coal Corporation has been reduced from £19,000,000 to £12,300,000 to reflect the transfer of responsibility for most of its property liabilities to the Coal Authority.