Cash Limits (Hansard, 3 February 1988)

§ Mr. Allan Stewart
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether the Lord Advocate proposes any changes to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service cash and running cost limits for 1987–88.

§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton
The cash limit on class XX, vote 21, will be reduced by £250,000 from £17,706,000 to £17,456,000 and the running costs limit by £250,000 from £16,892,000 to £16,642,000 subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate. Class XX, vote 22, will be increased by £250,000 from £3,586,000 to £3,836,000.

§ Mr. Allan Stewart
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he proposes to make any further changes to the cash limits for 1987–88 within his responsibility.

§ Mr. Rifkind
I shall be making the following changes. As announced on 23 July 1987, at columns434–36, the cash limit for class XVI, vote 2 (Agricultural Services and Fisheries, Scotland) was increased by £1.400 million, from £69.959 million to £71.359 million to reflect the carry forward of capital underspends allowed under the end year flexibility scheme. Following expected savings on a number of services this cash limit can be reduced by £800,000 to give a revised cash limit of £70.559 million.
This reduction will partly offset an increase of £1.876 million on class XVI, vote 3 (Regional and General Industrial Support, Scotland) from £127.029 million to £128.905 million. The increase results from an expected shortfall in receipts from the European Community of £2.395 million. This is partly offset by decreases of £500,000 in the grant-in-aid to the Scottish Development Agency which expects to realise additional receipts of that amount and £19,000 net from miscellaneous subheads.
The cash limit on class XVI, vote 11 (Administration of Justice, Scotland) will be reduced by £100,000 from £13.121 million to £13.021 million. This reduction, which arises from lower than anticipated expenditure on a computer project, is partly to offset increased expenditure of £550,000 on class XVI, Vote 13 (Legal Proceedings, Scotland) which is not cash limited.
The cash limit for class XVI, vote 14 (Prisons, hospitals and community health service etc., Scotland) will be increased by £12.650 million from £1,721.125 million to £1,733.775 million. Of this increase £7.6 million was announced by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Education on 18 December 1987 to allow extra funding for hospitals and community health services. The remainder reflects the net extra cost of implementation in Scotland of the fresh start initiative in the prison service, and is offset by extra receipts, £3.750 million, and from provision not now required on class XVI, vote 12 (Police Grant, Legal Aid and Criminal Injuries Compensation, Scotland) £1.3 million.
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I shall also be seeking parliamentary approval to increase class XVI, vote 26 (Privatisation of the electricity supply industry, Scotland) by £310,000 to give a revised cash limit of £680,000. This allows for higher than anticipated advisers' fees in preparation for the privatisation of the South of Scotland Electricity Board and the North of Scotland Hydro Electricity Board. It will be fully met from a cash limit reduction on class XVI, vote 21 (Scottish Office Administration) which will reduce the cash limit from £114.584 million to £114.274 million.
There is a related increase in the running costs limit for the Scottish Office of £6 million from £171.956 million to £177.956 million arising from the implementation of fresh start.
These changes represent a net charge on the Reserve of £9.141 million and will not therefore increase the planned total of public expenditure.
Parliamentary approval for the changes in voted expenditure will be sought through Supplementary Estimates.