HC Deb 06 February 1996 vol 271 cc144-5W
Mr. Merchant

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what changes will be made to his Department's cash and running costs limits and external financing limits for 1995–96. [14219]

Mr. Lang

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the cash limit for class IV, vote 1—programmes and administration—will be increased by £44,811,000 from £1,233,341,000 to £1,278,152,000.

This net increase results from the provision of £52,900,000 in respect of UKAEA restructuring, £2,240,000 to reflect agreed changes to Nirex payments, £2,193,000 to meet the funding requirements of executive agencies, £227,000 to reflect the net effect of the transfer of gas and oil measurement branch to the Office of Gas Supply and transfers of £300,000 from Property Holdings in respect of the relocation of the Nottingham industrial tribunal office and £77,000 from the FCO in respect of international subscriptions. These increases are offset by reductions of £3,000,000 in energy programmes, £2,303,000 in support for business, £723,000 for laboratory privatisation and contractorisation, £1,100,000 in running costs and by the machinery of government transfer from the Department for Education and Employment—class V, vote 1—of running costs of £6 million which will be carried forward for use in 1996–97. The increase will be accounted for by a reduction in provision for the non-voted redundancy payments scheme of £19,900,000 with that remaining being charged to the reserve. As a result, there will be no increase to the planned total of public expenditure.

Within this total, the gross running cost limit for the Department of Trade and Industry is being reduced by £1,662,000 from £364,627,000 to £362,965,000. This change reflects machinery of government transfers from the former Employment Department—class V, vote 1—totalling £608,000 and the Cabinet Office: Office of Public Service—class XVIII, vote 1—totalling £1,044,000, plus an agreed reclassification of £20,000 capital expenditure as running costs. This has been offset by a transfer to class XVIII, vote 1 of £434,000, by a transfer of £1,800,000 to class IV, vote 10 in respect of the transfer of the gas and oil measurement branch to the Office of Gas Supply, and by a reduction of £1,100,000 to offset earlier claims on the reserve.

Additionally, subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the cash limit for class XVIII, vote 2—science—will be increased by £2,600,000 from £1,292,852,000 to £1,295,452,000 to enable the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council to meet the cost of certain redundancies at Horticulture Research International. The increase is offset by a similar reduction in class III, vote 3 and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure. The opportunity of the supplementary estimate is also being taken to switch resources between certain subheads of the vote.

A reduction of £2,300,000 is made in the external financing limit of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority from minus £10,300,000 to minus £12,600,000 to support the increased provision for UKAEA restructuring.

The EFL of Nuclear Electric is reduced by £15,000,000 to £272,000,000 to £257,000,000 resulting from agreed changes to provision of Nirex payments. Nuclear Electric's EFL is currently under review and may be changed at a later date.