§ Mr. Formanasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what reductions will be made in his Department's cash limits for 1983–84 following the statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of 7 July.
§ Sir Keith JosephMy right hon. Friend's statement required reductions, taking my cash limits as a whole, of 1 per cent. in the pay and central Government administrative elements and of 2 per cent. in the remainder. I have decided on the following reductions:
£ million Class X, Vote 1 5.786 Class X, Vote 3 24.600 Class X, Vote 4 0.856 Total 31.242 Notes
Further education and other educational services
1. In Vote 1 reductions of about £5 million in total will be made in provision for the voluntary colleges and other direct grant institutions of higher education; adult education; educational research; and some other programmes. In one or two cases this will involve reductions in individual grants which have already been announced, and in others new initiatives will be deferred, but there will be no changes in Government policy. The rest of the savings—£0.7 million—are being met from larger receipts from the Isle of Man and Channel Islands in respect of higher education provided here for their students.
Universities and Science
2. The original provision in Vote 3 for universities' restructuring including the cost of redundancies, and for rates was larger than is now necessary, and it will be reduced by £23.5 million. The grants already allocated by the UGC to individual institutions will not be reduced. There will be no reductions in the science budget—Votes 5–11—or in provision for the recent Government initiatives for "new blood" research appointments and for information technology.
3. The rest of the reduction in Vote 3—£1.1 million—will fall on the Open University. Savings will be made by the deferment of some expenditure on capital works and equipment, together with some small reductions in recurrent expenditure.
4. The net reduction in Vote 3 will be limited to £23.1 million to provide an extra £1.5 million in Subhead Al as a contribution to the extra cost of the pay settlement for university clinical staff, consequent upon the increases agreed for NHS doctors and dentists. This £1.5 million will be met from the contingency reserve and will not add to the total of public expenditure.
DES central administration
5. In Vote 4, the Department's own staffing and administration, there is a reduction of £0.6 million or 1.3 per cent. in running costs. This is on top of the savings of 1.4 per cent. already required to meet that part of the cost of this year's Civil Service pay settlement not allowed for in the original cash limit. There will also be some increase in repayments for services provided to other bodies.
Student awards
6. There will be no reduction in the provision for grants to students in Vote 2, which is not cash limited. I shall lay before 366W Parliament shortly regulations embodying the rates and conditions of grant for the academic year 1983–84 which have already been announced.