HC Deb 25 February 1999 vol 326 c357W
Miss Begg

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what changes he proposes to make to his Department's cash limits and running costs for 1998–99. [71118]

Mr. Chris Smith

Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the cash limit for Class X, Vote 1 will be increased by £468,000 from £885,816,000 to £886,284,000.

This is to enable the Tate Gallery to use the proceeds of £1,900,000 from the sale of its store at Acton to finance the remaining conversion works at their new store at Southwark and the relocation of library and archive facilities to Millbank; to provide for increases in provision of £97,000 for the Public Lending Right to maintain the rate per loan at 2.07 pence; £215,000 for works on occupied Royal Palaces and state monuments in line with end year flexibility as announced by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 14 July 1998, Official Report, columns 131–36; £80,000 to English Heritage and £135,000 to the Royal Parks for the costs associated with public consultation on a memorial garden for the late Diana, Princess of Wales; £23,000 to the Library and Information Commission for the cost of movement of transfer values for staff into the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme; £120,000 and £450,000 in gross running costs for the transfer of provisions for refunds of VAT on contracted out services from net receipts to Appropriations in Aid; to provide for a reimbursement of £189,000 on payments made to the Inland Revenue for assets accepted in lieu of tax; to provide for a transfer of £15,000 from the Inland Revenue for services provided by the Museums and Galleries Commission on pre-eminent quality testing and to provide for a reduction of £97,000 in the requirement for the Department's contribution to the Council of Europe's Audiovisual Eureka in Brussels and the European Audiovisual Observatory in Strasbourg.

The increases will be offset by transfers, savings or charged to the Reserve, and will not, therefore, add to the planned total of public expenditure.