§ Mr. DickensTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether any changes will be made to his Department's cash limits or running cost limits for 1988–89.
§ Mr. FowlerSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary revised and summer Supplementary Estimates, the following changes will be made:
The cash limit for class VII, vote 1 (employment programmes) will be reduced by £327,452,000 from £1,621,069,000 to £1,293,617,000. The reduction reflects the transfer of provision to class VII, vote 5 (Manpower Services Commission).
The cash limit on class VII, vote 2 (Department of Employment: administration) will be reduced by £702,000 from £263,872,000 to £263,170,000. This is the net effect of the reduction of administrative costs paid to the Manpower Services Commission in respect of the community programme and further adjustment of the provisional split of capital and running costs between the Department of Employment (DE) and the Manpower 133W Services Commission (MSC) agreed at the time of the 1988–89 main Supply Estimates in respect of certain employment and enterprise functions transferred from MSC to DE on 26 October 1987.
The cash limit for class VII, vote 5 (MSC) will be increased by £281,927,000 from £1,656,251,000 to £1,938,178,000 in order to introduce the employment training programme that I announced on 16 February 1988 at column 825. The increase is the net effect of transfers from class VII, votes 1 and 2, offset by appropriations in aid totalling £46,227,000 from the Industry Department for Scotland (class XVII, vote 4) and the Welsh Office (class XVI, vote 4) towards expenditure on employment training.
The cash limit for class XVI, vote 4 (MSC Scotland) will be increased by £23,719,000 from £186,363,000 to £210,082,000 to meet the proportion of the MSC increases described above which can be specifically identified as applicable to Scotland.
The cash limit for class XVII, vote 4 (MSC Wales) will be increased by £22,508,000 from £120,213,000 to £142,721,000 to meet the proportion of the MSC increases described above which can be specifically identified as applicable to Wales.
Finally, there is a token £1,000 cash limit on the new vote for the sale of professional and executive recruitment (PER), class VII, vote 6.
Consequently the cash limits total for the Department of Employment group as a whole is reduced by £46,226,000 from £3,654,953,000 to £3,608,727,000.
The Department of Employment's running costs limit will be increased by £6,000 from £611,290,000 to £611,296,000. This is the net effect of the transfer back to DE from the MSC of £1,397,000 running costs in respect of the transfer of certain employment and enterprise functions in October 1987 and the reclassification of PER seconded staff salaries out of running costs.
The transfer of running costs to DE has resulted in the MSC's running costs limit being reduced by £1,397,000 from £225,055,000 to £223,658,000.
Consequently the running costs total for the Department of Employment group as a whole is reduced by £1,391,000 from £945,916,000 to £944,525,000.