Departmental Expenditure Limit (Hansard, 17 February 2000)

§ Mr. Straw

Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL), which covers Class IV Vote 1 (Home Office administration, police, probation, immigration and other services, England and Wales) and Vote 2 (Prisons, England and Wales), will be decreased by £71,496,000 from £7,763,444,000 to £7,691,948,000. The running cost limit will be decreased by £1,141,000 from £2,137,953,000 to £2,136,812,000. A separate running cost limit of £163,000 has been established for expenditure on Welfare to Work.

The changes are the net effect of the following transfers: £60,000 to the Department of Health (Class II Vote 2) towards the cost of the Teenage Pregnancy Implementation Unit; £500,000 to the Department of Health (Class II Vote 2) for the publicity campaign costs on teenage pregnancy; £200,000 from the Lord Chancellor's Department (Class V Vote 1), £93,000 from the Crown Prosecution Service (Class V Vote 4) in relation to contributions towards the costs of the Integrated Business and Information Systems Unit; £1,000,000 from the Department for Education and Employment (Class I Vote 1) and £1,500,000 from the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Class III Vote 1) in support of the Youth Inclusion Programme; £411,000 from the Welsh Assembly (Class XIV Vote 1) to support Closed Circuit Television projects in Wales; £20,000 to the Department of Health (Class II Vote 2) for the development of a handbook for drug service commissioners; £25,000 from the Cabinet Office (Class XVII Vote 1) in relation to the transfer of posts from the security facilities division; £600,000 to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Class VII Vote 1) as contribution towards two overseas drug prevention projects; £9,612,000 from the DEL Reserve in respect of costs arising from the Kosovan humanitarian evacuation programmes; £176,000,000 from the DEL Reserve in respect of asylum support costs; £3,980,000 to the Scottish Executive for asylum seekers support arrangements; £233,000 to the Northern Ireland Office (Class XV Vote 1) in respect of legal services provided to the Northern Ireland Office; £56,000 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Class VII Vote 1) to cover the short-term attachment of the former Director of Operations (North) to the South African 625W Department of Correctional Services; £45,000,000 from the DEL Reserve to fund the payment of special grant to local authorities for Kosovan evacuees. In addition, £300,000,000 in the DEL for asylum support costs has been reclassified as Annually Managed Expenditure.

The decrease in the department's running costs limit is the net effect of the following transfers: £60,000 to the Department of Health towards the costs of the Teenage Pregnancy Implementation Unit; £200,000 from the Lord Chancellor's Department and £93,000 from the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to contributions towards the costs of the Integrated Business and Information Systems Unit; £25,000 from the Cabinet Office in relation to the transfer of posts from the security facilities division; £8,500,000 from the DEL Reserve in respect of asylum support costs; £233,000 to the Northern Ireland Office in respect of legal services provided to the Northern Ireland Office; £56,000 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to cover the short term attachment of the former Director of Operations (North) to the South African Department of Correctional Services; £6,000,000 from the Prison Service's running costs to fund the issue of long term loans to the Forensic Science Service; £3,722,000 from the Departmental Unallocated Provision (running costs element) to other current expenditure to fund the purchase of DNA services from the Forensic Science Service.

These changes will be offset by transfers or a charge on the Reserve and will not, therefore, add to the planned total of public expenditure.