§ Mr. Gwilym JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he proposes to make any changes to the cash limits for class XVII and to his Department's provision for running costs in the current financial year.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerYes. Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the following changes will be made.
The cash limit on class XVII vote 2 is to be reduced by £1,499,000 from £90,947,000 to £89,448,000 reflecting (i) a decrease of £1,500,000 in the public dividend capital provision for the Welsh Development Agency and (ii) a token £1,000 Supplementary to open a new subhead to make a special contribution to the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society. The reduction in the provision for public dividend capital will enable a corresponding increase to be made in the agency's non-voted borrowing facility with the National Loans Fund and assist in meeting the higher demand for capital investment loans from small businesses in Wales.
The cash limit for class XVII, vote 5 is to be increased by £2,260,000 from £266,711,000 to £268,971,000. The increase covers the transfer of responsibility for payment of grants in respect of hostel deficits from the Secretary of State for Social Security (£20,000), an increase to the grant-in-aid for the Wales Tourist Board to be met from existing but unallocated public expenditure provision (£100,000) and an increase for the carry forward of 1988–89 capital underspends under the end year flexibility scheme (£2,140,000).
The cash limit for class XVII, vote 8 is to be increased by £5,000,000 from £830,510,000 to £835,510,000. The additional provision is required to help meet the cost of implementing the National Health Service Review proposals contained in the White Paper "Working for Patients".
The cash limit for class XVII, vote 9 is to be increased by £1,786,000 from £46,271,000 to £48,057,000. This increase covers the take up of 1988–89 capital and running costs underspends under the end year flexibility scheme (£317,000 and £205,000 respectively) and makes provision for the running cost implications of the National Health Service review (£1,000,000), for the statutory audit of National Health Service activities in Wales (£200,000) and for the administrative cost of introducing two new grant regimes (£64,000). The Department's running costs limit is to be increased by £1,469,000 from £44,688,000 to £46,157,000.
210WIn accordance with the reply by my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Planning on 26 October 1989 to the hon. Member for Cardiff, North (Mr. Jones), the cash limit on class XVII, vote 13 is being increased by £276,000,000 from £1,000 to £276,001,000. This increase provides for the establishment of an appropriate capital structure for Welsh Water plc.
The cash limit changes total £283,547,000. Allowing for the cash limit reduction on vote 2 (£1,499,000), the total of the cash limit increases is £285,046,000. Of this sum, the increase in respect of the capital structure of Welsh Water and compensation by the residuary company (£276,000,000) will be met from the privatisation proceeds programme; the increases on account of end-year flexibility (£2,662,000), the National Health Service Review (£6,000,000) and the administration costs of National Health Service Audit and the new grants regimes (£264,000) will be charged to the Reserve and the increases for hostel deficit grants (£20,000) and the Wales Tourist Board (£100,000) are covered by my existing PES resources. These increases will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.