§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is his latest estimate of the extent of(a) overspend and (b) underspend in his Department's budget for 1995–96; and if he proposes to return unspent allocations to the Treasury. [22423]
358W
§ Mr. HaguePlanned expenditure within my responsibility for 1995–96 was shown in last year's Welsh Office departmental report, Cm 2815, as £6,778 million. The final out-turn for 1995–96 will not be known for some time but table 6.2 of the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 1996–97, Cm 3201, which was published last week by the Treasury, reports an estimated out-turn of £6,743 million.
Most of the £35 million estimated underspend has arisen on cash limited programmes where the underspends can be carried forward into 1996–97 under the Treasury's end-year flexibility arrangements.
Within this amount, it is estimated that my Department's demand-led programmes will underspend by around £3.5 million. This estimated underspend has arisen mainly in respect of pharmaceutical services, £2.5 million, where the underspend represents less than 1 per cent. of the total provision of £426.7 million. After all claims for payment have been met in full, any provision left will remain unspent.