§ Mr. RoweTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what changes are being made to his Department's cash limits and nationalised industries' external financing limits for 1992–93.
§ Mr. HeseltineSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimates the cash limit for class IV, vote 2 (support for industry, international trade, statutory and regulatory work, consumer protection and administration) will be increased by £4,094,000 from £804,231,000 to £808,325,000 and the cash limit on class V, vote 2 (research and development and industrial support) will be increased by £11,450,000 from £340,375,000 to £351,825,000. The cash limit for class V, vote 3 (administration) will be reduced by £500,000 from £19,506,000 to £19,006,000. The increases will be met by offsets or charged to the reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.
The increase on class IV, vote 2 comprises £2,145,000 in respect of the administration costs of companies' late filing penalties and £6,000,000 (£1,000,000 of which comes from reductions to existing programmes) in respect of English Industrial Estates Corporation to offset reduced receipts as a result of the downturn in the property market. An increase of £500,000 is made in running costs in respect of transferred provision from class V, vote 3 and a decrease in capital spending results in a transfer of £3,200,000 to class V, vote 2. Extra receipts amounting to £351,000 are declared in respect of payments by the Department of Health to the Radiocommunications Agency.
The increase on class V, vote 2 for £11,450,000 is made up of a transfer of £3,200,000 from class IV, vote 2 to cover consultancy costs of the coal review and compensation costs arising from litigation relating to leukaemia cases. A further increase of £8,250,000 provides for a contribution to finance improvements in nuclear safety in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. An offsetting reduction of £8,250,000 is made in the 263W external financing limit of Nuclear Electric from £278,000,000 to £286,250,000. The external financing limit of the British Coal Corporation changes to £795,000,000 resulting from increased costs including expenditure in respect of current year voluntary redundancies, increased working capital requirements and environmental restoration at former mining sites.