Departmental Cash Limits (Hansard, 23 February 1999)

§ Mr. Mudie

Subject 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	10,381,602,000	94,807,000	10,476,409,000
IX	3	1,749,858,000	25,811,000	1,775,669,000
IX	4	118,641,000	-8,300,00	110,342,000

The cash limit for Class IX, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) will be increased by £94,807,000 from £10,381,602,000 to £10,476,409,000. This is the net effect of the take up of £17,356,000 of the end-year flexibility eligibility on running costs and £5,265,000 of that on the New Deal for Schools announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 14 July 1998, Official Report, columns 131–36; a claim on reserve of £38,000,000 to cover European Social Fund payments in the current financial year for which the receipts from the EC will not arrive until next year; transfers of £8,300,000 from Class IX, Vote 4 (Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools) and £19,200,000 from Class IX, Vote 3 (Employment service) in connection with Books for Schools and Key stage 2 revision classes, of £20,000 from Class XIII, Vote 3 (the Scottish Office) for compensation due to a change in the student support funding regime and cross border flows of students, and of £102,000 to Class XII, Vote 3 (the Department of Social Security) for publicity of the National Childcare strategy; a switch of £4,224,000 from Supplementary Credit approvals in connection with the provision of schools capital; and an increase of £6,348,000 for Welfare to Work publicity and running costs of which £1,718,000 is transferred from Class IX, Vote 3 (Employment Service) and £70,000 from Class XII, Vote 3 (Department of Social Security), and £4,560,000 is extra provision financed from the windfall tax; offset by transfers of £250,000 to Class XIV, Vote 2 (the Welsh office) and £230,000 to Class XV, Vote 1 (the Northern Ireland Departments) for the University for Industry, of £470,000 to Class XII, Vote 1 (the Department of Social Security) for Bridging Allowances, of £4,260,000 of gross provision and £1,702,000 of receipts to Class IX, Vote 3 (the Employment Service) for restructuring and Grays Inn Road property, and of £500,000 to Class XI, Vote 1 (the Department of Health) for professions allied to medicine.

The running cost provision within the control total has been increased by £25,791,000 from £250,548,000 to £276,330,000. This is as a result of the £17,356,000 take up of end-year flexibility and the transfers of £20,000 from the 282W Scottish Office and £4,260,000 to the Employment Service mentioned above, plus the reclassification of £3,000,000 from capital to running costs and an addition of £9,500,000 to take account of the change to the treatment of VAT receipts on contracted out services and of £175,000 for EC related initiatives which are offset by receipts. The Welfare-to-Work running costs provision (outside the control total) will increase by £1,479,000 form £1,283,000 to £2,762,000. This is as a result of the transfer of £219,000 from the Employment Service, the virement of £130,000 from the Millennium Volunteers programme and additions of £494,000, £70,000, £370,000 and £196,000 for the New Deals on Young People, Lone Parents, the Disabled and Partners respectively.

The non-Voted cash limit DfEE/LACAP has also been decreased by £4,224,000 from £44,940,000 to £40,716,000 as a result of increase in provisions of schools capital.

The cash limit for Class IX, Vote 3: Employment Service will be increased by £25,811,000 (of which £15,311,000 is in respect of the Welfare-to-Work programme and is outside the control total) from £1,749,858,000 to £1,775,669,000.

The £15,311,000 for the Welfare-to-Work programme is the net result of the following: a transfer of £10,350,000 from Class XII, Vote 1 (Central government administered social security benefits and other payments) for the New Deal for lone parents; £4,871,000 direct from the Windfall Tax for the New Deal programmes to help people with disabilities and partners of unemployed people into work; the take up of £1,808,000 under the Welfare-to-Work end year flexibility scheme as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 14 July 1998, Official Report, column 131–36; a transfer of £1,718,000 to Class IX, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) to cover the cost of work on New Deal programmes undertaken by Department for Education and Employment.

The balance of the increase to the cash limit, £10,500,000, is the net result of the following: an increase of £19,957,000 in capital provision due to the sale of Information Technology assets; the transfer of £19,200,000 to Class IX, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) in respect of additional spending on books for schools and Key Stage 2; the transfer from Class XII, Vote 3 (Department of Social Security; administration) of £7,108,000 for the recalculation of JSA core funding and other work ES undertakes for the Benefits Agency; a transfer of £4,260,000 in running costs and £1,702,000 in appropriations in aid from Class IX, Vote 1, to cover the transfer of the lease for 236 Grays Inn Road, London and the restructuring costs of surplus staff; and from Class XVIII, Vote 1 (Cabinet Office: other services), £77,000 in respect of accommodation costs of The Pithay, Bristol.

The running cost provision within the control total for Class IX, Vote 3 will be increased by £24,873,000 from £777,673,000 to £802,546,000. This increase results from the transfers of £7,108,000 from the Department of Social Security, £4,500,000 from capital provision to fund additional expenditure on Information technology services now undertaken by an external provider; £4,260,000 from the Department for Education and Employment and 283W £77,000 from the Cabinet Office and an addition of £8,928,000 to take account of the change to the treatment of VAT receipts on contracted out services which are offset by receipts.

The Welfare-to-Work running costs provision, outside the control total for Class IX, Vote 3 will be increased by £14,291,000 from £122,500,000 to £136,791,000. This is the result of the transfer of £9,725,000 from the Department of Social Security, the additional £4,476,000 from the Windfall Tax, the take up of £1,808,000 of end-year flexibility and the transfer to the Department for Education and Employment of £1,718,000.

The gross running costs limit for the DfEE (comprising Class IX, Vote 1 and Vote 3) inside the control total has increased by £32,236,000 from £1,028,221,000 to £1,060,457,000 and outside the control total by £15,770,000 from £123,783,000 to £139,553,000. The gross running costs limit is net of the VAT changes of £9,500,000 on Vote 1 and £8,928,000 on Vote 3.

The cash limit for Class IX, Vote 4 (Ofsted) will be reduced by £8,300,000 from £118,641,000 to £110,342,000 as a result of the transfer to Class IX, Vote 1 in connection with Key Stage 2 revision classes.

284W

Increases to all Votes mentioned above will be offset by transfers and charges to the reserves and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.