§ Mr. Knoxasked the Paymaster General whether any changes will be made to his Department's cash limits or running costs limits for 1986–87
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the following changes will be made.
The cash limit on class VII, vote 1 will be reduced by £9,373,000 from £1,309,496,000 to £1,300,123,000. This is mainly due to reduced expenditure on the community programme and the new workers scheme, reflecting slightly lower than anticipated take up of both schemes.The cash limit on class VII, vote 3 will be increased by £5,000,000 from £62,005,000 to £67,005,000 to make additional provision for publicising Department of Employment group services. The reduction on vote 1 offsets the cost both of this increase and of increased expenditure of £4 million by the unemployment benefit service, which the Department of Employment operates as the Department of Health and Social Security's agent. The £4 million increase is matched by receipts from the DHSS (class XV, vote 5). Further increased expenditure of £2,650,000 by the UBS on class VII, vote 3 for claimant advisory work is also met by receipts from class XV, vote 5.As a result of the overall increase of £6,650,000 in the operating costs of the UBS, the Department of Employment's gross running costs limit on class VII, vote 3 is increased from £384,588,000 to £391,238,000 and consequently the total for the Department of Employment group as a whole is increased from £885,248,000 to £891,898,000.There is no net increase in public expenditure resulting from these changes.