HC Deb 15 February 2000 vol 344 cc506-7W
Mr. Coaker

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what proposals he has to amend his Department's expenditure limit and running costs limit for 1999–2000. [110525]

Mr. Rooker

Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate for Class XII Vote 3 (Department of Social Security: administration) the Department of Social Security's Departmental Expenditure Limit will be increased by £27,811,000 from £3,265,802,000 to £3,293,613,000. The Supplementary Estimate is the net effect of £20,000,000 (running costs) for expenditure associated with Welfare Modernisation activities, £526,000 (running costs) for additional pensions work, £525,000 (running costs) to meet additional costs of providing a letter forwarding service and £203,000 (running costs) to meet the costs of collecting expenses associated with road traffic accidents in Scotland and Wales.

Other changes result from an increase of £11,062,000 (running costs) arising from a number of small transfers offset by a corresponding reduction on Class I, Vote 3 (Employment Services), a reduction of £619,000 (Capital) offset by a corresponding increase on Class I, Vote 3 (Employment Services), a reduction of £53,000 (running costs) arising from the continuing effects of the transfer of responsibility for Contributions Agency and Working Families Tax Credit to Inland Revenue offset by a corresponding increase on Class XVI, Vote 4 (Inland Revenue: administration), an increase of £1,250,000 (running costs) for the cost of collecting expenses associated with road traffic accidents offset by a corresponding reduction on Class II, Vote 1 (Hospital, community health, family health and related services, England), a reduction of £60,000 (running costs) towards the administrative costs of the Teenage Pregnancy Unit offset by a corresponding increase on Class II, Vote 2 (Department of Health administration, miscellaneous health and personal social services, England), a reduction of £505,000 (running costs) for costs associated with the recruitment of panel members offset by a corresponding increase on Class V, Vote 1 (Lord Chancellor's Department), a reduction of £304,000 (running costs) for the London Rough Sleepers Unit offset by a corresponding increase on Class III, Vote 1 (Housing, construction, regeneration, countryside and wildlife, England), an increase of £34,000 (running costs) for access to miner's medical records offset by a reduction on Class XI, Vote 1 (Department of Trade and Industry, programmes and administration), a reduction of £20,000 (running costs) for costs associated with Better Government for Older People offset by an increase on Class XVII, Vote 1 (Cabinet Office). There is also an increase of £7,972,000 (running costs) associated with services provided to other government departments on a repayment basis, an increase of (£13,696,000) running costs arising from increased payments of Value Added Tax on contracted out services and a reduction of £10,000 (running costs) as a result of virement to capital expenditure. Appropriations in aid increase by £22,896,000.

Changes in the Welfare-to-Work provision arise from an increase of £1,204,000 in the administrative costs of measures to help people with a disability or long-term illness move into or remain in work and a net reduction of £213,000 as a result of a number of minor transfers to Class I, Vote 3 (Employment Services).

As a result of these changes the running cost limit of this Department will be increased by £32,648,000 from £3,009,854,000 to £3,042,502,000 and the running cost limit of the Welfare-to-Work programme will be increased by £991,000 from £10,968,000 to £11,959,000.

The increase will be offset by transfers from other Departmental Expenditure Limits and also a charge on the DEL Reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.

Distributing body Number of applications Number of awards Amount awarded (£)
Arts Council of England 1Not known 3 22,667
Film Council 0 0 0
Heritage Lottery Fund 8 3 551,200
Millennium Commission Not known 0 0
National Lottery Charities Board 161 49 490,318
New Opportunities Fund 2Not known 2Not known 2Not known
Sport England 20 9 122,922
UK Sport 0 0 0
1 The Arts Council of England has received 15 applications from within the area covered by Torbay Borough Council.
2 The New Opportunities Fund (NOF) has not received any applications from the Torbay constituency for its Health Living Centre, Out of School Hours Activities, or Digitisation programmes. Funding for the ICT (information and computer technology) programme is allocated by local education authority or library authority, and NOF is unable to provide a breakdown by constituency at present. NOF has allocated £409,044 to schools in Torbay LEA.