§ Mr. Norrisasked the Paymaster General whether any change will be made to cash limits or gross running cost limits for his Department.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the following changes will be made.
The cash limit for class VII, vote 1 (labour market services) will be increased by £82,400,000 from £1,227,006,000 to £1,309,406,000 to cover the expansion of the community programme and an associated increase in the average wage limit, and the introduction of a new workers scheme, announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Budget statement on 18 March 1986.
The cash limit for class VII, vote 3 (administration) will be increased by £1,500,000 from £60,505,000 to £62,005,000 to cover the Department's administrative costs arising from the measures announced in the 1986 Budget, and increased payments to the Manpower Services Commission for statistical work and in connection with city action teams. Increased expenditure of £8,300,000 on the vote is partially offset by receipts totalling £6,800,000 from class XV, vote 5 (DHSS administration).
The cash limit for class VII, vote 6 (MSC) will be increased by £78,354,000 from £1,566,832,000 to £1,645,186,000 to cover the nationwide expansion of the restart programme and an increase in the number of places 423W on the enterprise allowance scheme, partially offset by a reduction in expenditure on MSC's geographical mobility schemes, as announced in the Budget. A gross increase of £93,074,000 is offset by increased appropriations in aid totalling £14,720,000 from the industry department for Scotland (class XVI, vote 4) and the Welsh Office (class XVII, vote 4).
The cash limit for class XVI, vote 4 (MSC, Scotland) will be increased by £9,008,000 from £155,069,000 to £164,077,000 to meet the proportion of the MSC increases described above which can be specifically identified.
The cash limit for class XVII, vote 4 (MSC, Wales) will be increased by £5,712,000 from £95,076,000 to £100,788,000 to meet the proportion of the MSC increases which can be specifically identified with services in Wales.
As a result of these changes, the Department of Employment's gross running cost limit is increased by £10,300,000 from £374,288,000 to £384,588,000; and the MSC's gross running cost limit is increased by £28,458,000 from £370,875,000 to £399,360,000. Taken together with the existing gross running cost limits for the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service and the Health and Safety Commission, the total for the Department of Employment group as a whole will be increased by £38,785,000 from £846,463,000 to a new aggregate of £885,248,000.
The public expenditure costs of these measures have been charged to the Reserve so do not add to the public expenditure planning total.