§ Mr. Michael BrownTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether any changes will be made to his Department's cash limits or running costs limits for 1989–90.
§ Mr. HowardSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the following changes will be made.
The cash limit for class VII, vote 1 (training programmes) will be reduced by £19,694,000 from £2,619,336,000 to £2,599,642,000. This is the net effect of a token £1,000 estimate; a decrease of £18,886,000 to offset the increase sought on class VII, vote 2, to repay the European Commission for European social fund overpayments in respect of 1987 and 1988, and a decrease of £809,000 to fully offset the increase sought on class VII, vote 5 for the main sale expenses of the Skills Training Agency (STA).
There is also some switching of provision within the vote, the most notable being a transfer of £38,410,000 from employment training (section B1) to the Skills Training Agency (section G); £19,183,000 of this transfer is to cover excess expenditure on running costs and £19,227,000 is because income is expected to be lower than in the original estimate.
As a result of these changes, there will be an increase of £20,210,000 in the DE training programmes running costs limit from £211,627,000 to £231,837,000. This increase is net of the £2,267,000 reduction to compensate for a breach of the same amount in the 1988–89 Training Agency class VII, vote 2 running costs limit.
The cash limit on class VII, vote 2, will be increased by £16,719,000 from £641,009,000 to £657,728,000. The increase is more than offset by a £19,694,000 reduction in the cash limit on class VII, vote 1. The increase is the net result of an increase of £20,089,000 to repay the European Commission for European social fund overpayments In respect of 1987–88 offset by a reduction in provision in 59W class VII vote 1; the transfer of £365,000 from the Cabinet Office: Office of the Minister for the Civil Service (class XX, vote 1) in respect of the challenge funding scheme for senior management development training; the transfer to class VII, vote 1 of £2,000,000 to cover increased cost of the introduction of training and enterprise councils; the net transfer of £1,471,000 to class VII, vote 1, as final adjustment of the provisional split of provision between the Department of Employment and the Training Agency following the transfer of some small firms and enterprise functions to the Training Agency with effect from 1 July 1989; increased appropriations in aid of £244,000 from the Department of Social Security (class XV, vote 7) as a result of provision transferred to the employment service in the revised estimate; and the transfer of £20,000 to the Department of Health (class XIV, vote 3) to fund the Alcohol Concern workplace advisory service.
There is also some switching of provision within the vote, the most notable of which is the transfer of provision between the employment service and other Department of Employment administration of £14,796,000 in preparation for the employment service becoming an agency.
As a result of these changes, there will be a decrease of £2,863,000 in the running costs limit for employment programmes and central services from £645,129,000 to £642,266,000.
The cash limit on class VII, vote 5, (sale of Skills Training Agency) will be increased by £809,000 from a token £1,000 to £810,000. This is required to fund the main sale expenses of the Skills Training Agency, which are mainly advisers' fees and is more than offset by the reduction on class VII, vote 1.