§ Mr. CatonTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what changes he proposes to make to the voted cash limits for his Department and the Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in Wales in 1997–98. [30379]
§ Mr. Ron DaviesSubject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimates, I intend to make the following changes:
The cash limit on class XIV, vote 2 will be reduced by £3,877,000 from £799,326,000 to £795,449,000 which mainly reflects a virement from cash limited resources into non-cash limited for the Further Education Funding Council to cover the increase in student numbers and 71W £360,000 of additional funding under the Welfare to Work initiative for the further education sector. This £360,000 is outside of the control total.
The cash limit on class XIV, vote 3 will be increased by £168,000 from £441,270,000 to £441,438,000 as the net result of an additional £200,000 from the Reserve towards the costs of providing for asylum seekers; a transfer of £7,000 to the Class XVIII, vote 3 for costs associated with the UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator and a transfer of £25,000 to Class XI, vote 2 for the Review of Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors. The transfer of £25,000 to Class XI, vote 2 also reduces the Department's running costs provision by £25,000 from £73,897,000 to £73,872,000.
The cash limit on class XIV, vote 4 has been decreased by £5,818,000 from £2,007,810,000 to £2,001,992,000 mainly as a net result of the take-up of £3,978,000 of end-year flexibility entitlements (£3,000,000 for NHS Trusts capital programme and £978,000 for hospital, community health and family health services), and the transfer of £10,000,000 from the cash limited general practitioner fundholder's drugs provision to the non-cash limited family health services provision. The external finance limit for NHS Trusts has been increased by £8,886,000 from £52,914,000 to £61,800,000.
The cash limit on class XIV, vote 6 has been reduced by £300,000 from £9,705,000 to £9,405,000 as a result of lower than expected expenditure on training courses.
The non-voted cash limit for expenditure on the European Regional Development Fund (WO/ERDF) has been increased by £1,398,000 from £44,750,000 to £46,148,000 as a result of a transfer of resources from DETR/ERDF.
None of the above changes add to the overall level of public expenditure.