HC Deb 30 March 1993 vol 222 cc179-80W
Mr. Peter Ainsworth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on how the Medicines Control Agency's opening balance will be financed when it becomes a trading fund on 1 April.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

In order that the Medicines Control Agency can begin trading on 1 April 1993 two separate sums need be paid into the fund's opening balance via a Contingencies Fund advancei. £9 million to cover money paid in advance by the pharmaceutical industry up to 31 March 1993, primarily in respect of licence application fees; ii. £5.1 million to cover the surplus of income over expenditure at 31 March 1993.

Parliamentary approval of this new expenditure will be sought in the 1993–94 estimates for the Department of Health administration, miscellaneous health and personal social services, England vote (class XII, vote 3). Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £14.1 million will be met by repayable advances from the Contingency Fund.