§ Mr. Roger KingTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy whether any changes will be made to the Office of Electricity Regulation's cash limit for 1990–91.
§ Mr. WakehamThe Director General of the Office of Electricity Regulation is accountable for this vote; I understand that the following changes will be made.
The cash limit for class V, vote 8 relating to expenditure by the Office of Electricity Regulation will be reduced by £300,000 from £12,135,000 to £11,835,000 mainly due to a planned slower build-up of staff numbers than originally forecast. The running cost limit will be reduced by £300,000 from £8,455,000 to £8,155,000.
§ Mr. DickensTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy whether any changes will be made to his Department's cash limits for 1990–91.
§ Mr. WakehamSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimates, the following changes will be made.
The cash limit for class V, vote 2 will be increased by £9,552,000 from £289,010,000 to £298,562,000. This extra provision is required to meet the costs of decommissioning and radiocative waste management operations resulting from the recently announced closure of the steam-generating heavy water reactor at Winfrith.
The cash limit for class V, vote 3 will be increased by £800,00 from £39,317,000 to £40,117,000. This extra provision is sought to meet an increase of £550,000 in the cost of the Piper Alpha public inquiry and payments to the Scottish Office and others of £250,000 in connection with the Ocean Odyssey fatal accident inquiry.
These increases are within the forecast outturn for the planning total included in the Chancellor's autumn statement today.