§ Mr. Andrew MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when the third supplementary report for 1986–87 and the fourth supplementary reports for 1983–84 and 1984–85 for England will be published.
§ Mr. RidleyI have laid these supplementary reports—SRs—before the House today. The main purpose of these SRs is to adjust grant to reflect the latest information on each authority's expenditure. The fourth SRs for 1983–84 and 1984–85 make new estimates of the totals of relevant expenditure, and specific grants, and adjust aggregate Exchequer grant, individual authorites grant, grant-related expenditure—GRE—assessments and their liability to grant abatement in the light of audited outturn expenditure in these years. The third SR for 1986–87 makes similar changes in the light of provisional outturn expenditure. However, there was no expenditure guidance issued in 1986–87, so there was no grant abatement in that year. All three SRs make certain other changes to correct errors, reflect boundary changes, and so on.
The SRs have to be approved by the House of Commons. Subject to that, I plan to make the revisions to grants payments to reflect the reports early in April. Copies of the reports and tables showing revised grant entitlement are being sent today to local authoriy associations and to each authority.