§ Mr. BowisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he proposes any changes to cash limits on votes within his responsibility for 1991–92.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimates, the cash limits for class XI, vote 2, higher and further education, vote 4, administration and vote 5, science, will be amended. The cash limit changes are as follows:
Class and Vote Current cash limit Change Revised cash limit £ £ £ XI.2 2,916,803,000 +12,188,000 2,928,991,000 XI.4 106,617,000 -1,984,000 104,633,000 XI.5 927,455,000 +4,484,000 931,939,000 The increase on class XI, vote 2 includes the full take-up of £2,688,000 capital end-year flexibility entitlement 264W announced by my right hon. and learned Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 17 July 1991, at columns 186-89. It also includes £2,500,000 additional grant-in-aid to the Universities Funding Council as a contribution towards the increased cost to universities of employing clinical academic staff following the Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body pay settlement; and provision of £7,000,000 to enable the Open university to purchase the freehold of its site at Walton hall, Milton Keynes. These increases will be met from the Reserve.
The cash limit reduction of £1,984,000 on class XI, vote 4 offsets part of the increase to the cash limit on the science budget, class XI, vote 5.
Of the increase of £4,484,000 in class XI, vote 5, £1,000,000 is to enable the Medical Research Council to meet part of the cost of the clinical research initiative; £1,500,000 is to enable the Science and Engineering Research Council—SERC —to meet the costs of providing buildings to support the work undertaken by holders of SERC grants in higher education institutions; and the remaining £1,984,000 is to enable the Agricultural and Food Research Council to transfer to Unilever plc provision in respect of pensions of staff who were formerly employed by the Plant Breeding Institute. These increases are wholly offset by proceeds from the sale of capital assets which were surrendered to the Consolidated Fund in 1990–91 and by the cash limit reduction on class XI, vote 4. The current cash limit of £927,445,000 on class XI, vote 5 includes an increase of £7,000,000 which I announced in the House on 12 June 1991, at column 356, but which is also subject to parliamentary approval of the spring supplementary estimate.