§ Sir Ivan LawrenceTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how he intends to pay the residual expenses arising from the privatisation of DTELS.
§ Mr. HowardDTELS—formerly the Directorate of Telecommunications—was sold on 1 March 1994 to National Transcommunications Ltd. for £6.6 million. The balance of proceeds, after payment of expenses relating to 1993–94, was surrendered to the Consolidated Fund in March 1994.
There are further expenses arising from the sale to be paid in 1994–95. Parliamentary approval for this new service will be sought in a summer supplementary estimate for the Home Office's administration, immigration, probation and police support services vote, class VIII, vote 3. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £800,000 will be met by repayable advances from the contingencies fund.