HC Deb 06 November 1991 vol 198 cc145-6W
Mr. Tredinnick

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether any changes will be made to his Department's cash limits or running costs limits for 1991–92.

Mr. Howard

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the following changes will be made:

The cash limit for class VI, vote (programmes and central services) will be increased by £81,066,000 from £2,357,241,000 to £2,438,307,000. The increase principally reflects additional provision for the package of employment measures which I announced to the House on 19 June 1991. The changes for this vote relating to the package are: £43,520,000 provision for the new employment action (EA) programme; an increase of £29,900,000 for employment training (ET); increased provision of £1,000,000 for publicity to promote the June measures; increased receipts from the Welsh Office (class XVI, vote 4) to recover increased expenditure on EA and ET in Wales; and increased running costs associated with the delivery of EA, of which £1,315,000 is for training and enterprise councils and departmental area offices in England and Wales and local enterprise companies in Scotland, and £342,000 is for Employment Department headquarters. The increase in the cash limit as a result of these measures is partially offset by reduced requirements by the Department of Social Security (class XIV, vote 1). Other changes to the cash limit reflect: a transfer of £3,100,000 from the Scottish Office (class XV, vote 3) for residual expenditure by my department mainly on Youth Training (YT) in Scotland; increased provision of £1,599,000 (running costs) and £2,000,000 (capital) for full take up of end year flexibility entitlement, to carry forward unspent provision from 1990–91 to 1991–92 as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 17 July 1991 at columns 186–190; an increase of £2,585,000 running costs for payment to Property Holdings for opportunity cost rents; an increase of £ 1,168,000 running costs for payment to the Treasury Solicitor's Department (TSD) for legal services and £17,000 new receipts for recovery of costs and awards from legal cases following the move to a repayment system with the Treasury Solicitor's Department; a transfer of £78,000 running costs from the Department of Education and Science (class XI, vote 4) for secretariat services to the school teachers review body; increased receipts of £300,000 from the sale of capital assets from the former National Dock Labour Board; a transfer of £45,000 to the Scottish Office (class XV, vote 13) to fund a grant to the Scottish Council on Alcohol; and a reduction of £20,000 for tourist projects to reflect an excess in expenditure on tourism in 1990–91.

The cash limit for class VI, vote 2 (employment service), will be increased by £35,031,000 from £453,849,000 to £488,880,000. The increase is the net result of an increase of £15,715,000 running costs for measures to assist the unemployed; an increase of £5,408,000 running costs for administration of payments to ET, YT and EA participants; an increase of £2,800,000 for job review and restart courses programmes; an increase of £10,060,000 running costs in respect of opportunity costs rents; an increase of £3,106,000 for full take up of running costs end year flexibility entitlement to carry forward unspent provision from 1990–91 to 1991–92 as announced by the Chief Secretary on 17 July 1991; an increase of £5,000,000 in running costs for increased funding for fraud investigation, offset by equivalent receipts from the Department of Social Security (class XIV, vote 4); increased receipts of £1,651,000 relating to VAT refunds on contracted out services and increased VAT receipts of £407,000 in respect of programmes for priority groups.

The running costs limit for the Department of Employment will be increased by £44,725,000 from £1,057,699,000 to £1,102,424,000.

The increases are within the forecast outturn for the planning total included in the Chancellor's autumn statement today.

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