§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to charge Departments for the value of their assets recorded on the National Register. [18194]
§ Mr. Darling[holding answer 2 December 1997]Departments, and parts of Departments, which are trading funds already incur a charge for their fixed assets; this forms part of the full cost of services provided which they are obliged to recover from income. As part of the introduction of resource accounting and budgeting, all 507W fixed assets on all departmental balance sheets will be subject to a capital charge. This will affect departmental budgets from 2001–02 when the system is fully implemented. I shall make a further statement on the Government's plans under resource accounting and budgeting in due course.