§ Mr. Peter Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for Transport, if he has decided what limit he will be placing 416W on central Government public service obligation grant payments to the British Railways Board in 1983; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. David HowellGrant to the British Railways Board forms part of its external finance limit which was announced on 8 November. Within that, I have informed the British Railways Board that the PSO grant ceiling for 1983 will be set at £860 million. After taking into account expected movements in prices, this is broadly equivalent to the grant ceiling of £804 million which I originally set for 1982. On 8 November I announced that the 1982 ceiling would be increased to £837 million to provide for additional redundancy costs. The ceiling I have set for 1983 will therefore represent some improvement in the board's financial performance and I hope to receive a grant claim which falls within it.
The amount of grant payable will depend on detailed consideration of the claim. I intend, however, to continue the arrangement I introduced in 1982 of ring fencing the budgeted expenditure on renewal and replacement of infrastructure to discourage cutbacks in this work if the board run into difficulties on other parts of its budget. I similarly intend to ring fence the budgeted provision for redundancy payments in 1983. These measures reflect the importance I attach to work on maintaining the system and to securing greater efficiency in the railway industry.