§ Mr. CashTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will give details of any revisions to cash limits on his Department's Votes in 1988–89.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, where appropriate, cash limits for the following votes will be revised as follows:384W
Class and Vote Current cash limit £1000s Increase/ reduction £1000s Revised cash limit £1000s XII. 1 481,457 -547 480,910 XII. 3 1,849,624 + 40 1,849,664 XII. 4 67,735 -10 67,725 XII. 5 60,179 + 979 61,158 An increase of £410,000 is being sought on class XII, vote 3 for expenditure originally included in provision on class XII, vote 1 in respect of outstanding liabilities for Goldsmiths' College. The increase on class XII, vote 3 reflects the inclusion of this expenditure following the college's incorporation as part of the University of London. A matching and offsetting reduction on class XII, vote 1 is also sought.
A reduction of £370,000 to the cash limit for class XII, vote 3 is also sought to reflect the decision not to seek supplementary provision in respect of the carry forward of capital underspend under the end year flexibility scheme as previously announced by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 21 July 1988 at columns 725–728.
A further reduction of £137,000 is also sought to the cash limit on class XII, vote 1 to reflect the transfer of complete responsibility for trade union education and training to the Department of Employment. A matching increase will be made to the Department of Employment's cash limit on class VII, vote 1.
A reduction of £10,000 is sought to the cash limit on class XII, vote 4 to reflect the transfer of £4,000 to the Office of Minister for the Civil Service for the cost of recruitment under the direct entry grade 7 competition 1988, and of £6,000 to the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys to reflect increased costs of a commissioned survey. Matching increases will be made to the cash limits on class XX, vote 1 and class X, vote 16 respectively.
My Department's running cost limit will also decrease by £10,000 from £66,203,000 to £66,193,000.
The increase on class XII, vote 5 reflects two changes to the vote of the Agricultural and Food Research Council. An increase of £1,760,000 is being sought to assist the AFRC in meeting the costs of restructuring made necessary by the reductions in research commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. This increase is offset by a reduction of £781,000 to reflect the reduction in grant from the AFRC to the Institute of Plant Science Research to take account of receipts from the sale of the assets of the Plant Breeding Institute.
Any net increase in expenditure on these votes as a result of these changes will be charged to the reserve. The overall planned total of expenditure will therefore remain unchanged.