§ Mr. Neubertasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what changes are being made to the Northern Ireland Office cash limit for Law, Order and Protective Services, Class XVII, Vote 1.
§ Mr. PriorSubject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate the cash limit for expenditure by the Northern Ireland Office on law, order and protective services has been increased by £9.61 million to £335.575 million. Considerable additional costs have fallen on the police budget this year in dealing with the civil disturbances mainly associated with the Maze hunger strike. It has been possible to reallocate additional resources to the police to meet some of these commitments from within the law and order vote as a whole; the £9.61 million is the balance which cannot be accommodated within the existing cash limit. This has been covered by 463W a transfer of resources from the Northern Ireland departmental programme made possible by the emergence of higher than anticipated receipts. The adjustment will not, therefore, affect the planned level of resources for Northern Ireland departments. A revised cash limit for Northern Ireland departments to take account of this transfer and of certain increases relating, inter alia, to the contingency reserve addition to Northern Ireland resources in respect of electricity tariffs will be announced as soon as possible.