Departmental Expenditure Limits (Hansard, 9 November 2000)

§ Mr. Byers

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the voted element of the Departmental Expenditure Limit for the Department of Trade and Industry will be increased by £87,800,000 from £3,503,716,000 to £3,591,516,000, the non-voted element of the Departmental Expenditure Limit will be increased by £11,885,000 from £118,752,000 to £130,637,000. In addition and the gross running costs limit will be increased by £11,913,000 from £401,002,000 to £412,915,000.

331W

The net provision of Class IX, Vote 1 will be increased by £87,799,000, which results from:

(i) the take up of end-year flexibility of £64,154,000 comprising £7,654,000 for running costs and £56,500,000 for current expenditure, of which £11,500,000 will be added to the provision for Enemy Property and £45,000,000 to that for Nuclear Decommissioning;
(ii) additional provision of £12,500,000 for compensation to distant water trawlermen;
(iii) additional provision of £25,000,000 from the Government's Capital Modernisation Fund, of which £15,000,000 is for the Small Business Service Gateway project and £10,000,000 for the Information Society Initiative getting SMEs on line project;
(iv) additional provision of £3,810,000 from the Civil Service Modernisation Fund of which £3,410,000 will be added to the running costs provision for Section D and £400,000 to that for Section G;
(v) the transfer of £17,215,000 in gross provision and £15,000 in appropriations in aid to British Trade International, (Class IX, Vote 4) in respect of the programme expenditure of Invest UK, formerly the Invest in Britain Bureau;
(vi) the transfer of £1,166,000 to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, (Class III, Vote 1) in respect of the administrative costs of the Regional Development Agencies and the London Development Agency;
(vii) the transfer of £536,000 in gross provision to the Innovation budget from the National Assembly for Wales, (Class XIV, Vote 1);
(viii) the transfer of £165,000 in programme expenditure from the Home Office (Class IV, Vote 1) to the Innovation budget for crime reduction activities;
(ix) the appropriation in aid of receipts from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, (Class X, Vote 2) of £8,500,000 in respect of the Farm Business Advice Service and an equivalent increase in the gross provision of the programme budget of the Small Business Service who will be responsible for delivering this service;
(x) an increase of £22,545,000 in the gross expenditure provision for the Radiocommunications Agency, which is offset by an equivalent increase in the appropriations in aid provision;
(xi) other movements between sections of the Vote.

The net provision of Class IX, Vote 2 will be increased by £1,000, which results from:

(i) the take up of end-year flexibility of £11,850,000 for the Science Enterprise Challenge Scheme comprising £2,500,000 for capital expenditure and £9,350,000 for current expenditure. This is offset by a reduction in voted capital expenditure of £11,884,000 in respect of the Joint Infrastructure Fund;
(ii) running costs transfers of £110,000 from the Home Office, (Class IV, Vote 1) to fund a foresight panel on crime reduction and £75,000 to the Department of Health, (Class II, Vote 2) for the Office of Science and Technology's share of the Human Genetic Commission's Secretariat.

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the voted element of the Departmental Expenditure Limit for British Trade International, Class IX, Vote 4, will be increased by £18,233,000 from £67,410,000 to £85,643,000. This increase in net provision results from:

(i) the take up of end-year flexibility entitlements of £1,033,000 for current expenditure, as announced by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in Table 7 of the 1999–2000 Public Expenditure White Paper (Cm 4812);
(ii) the transfer from the DTI Programmes and Administration Vote (Class IX, Vote 1) of £17,215,000 in gross provision and £15,000 in appropriations in aid in respect of the programme expenditure of Invest UK, formerly the Invest in Britain Bureau, whose transfer to British Trade International from the 332W Department of Trade and Industry was announced by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Trade on 24 May 2000, Official Report, columns 522–523.

British Trade International is the joint responsibility of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. In addition, subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Departmental Expenditure Limit for the Office of Fair Trading, Class IX, Vote 8, will be increased by £6,824,000 from £25,676,000 to £32,500,000 and the gross running costs limit will be increased by £5,024,000 from £25,490,000 to £30,514,000.

These changes result from:

(i) the take up of end-year flexibility of £854,000;
(ii) additional provision of £1,800,000 for work arising from the implementation of EC directives on Distance Selling and Injunctions, and Unfair Contract Terms;
(iii) additional provision of £450,000 for changes to work on Mergers;
(iv) additional provision of £750,000 for the review of the Professions;
(v) additional provision of £1,800,000 for appropriations in aid resulting from the shortfall in notification fees arising from the Competition Act 1998;
(vi) the transfer of £1,070,000 from the baseline of the Property Advisers to the Civil Estate in respect of the payment of rent for Fleetbank House;
(vii) additional provision of £100,000 from the Cabinet Office Modernisation Fund in support of diversity awareness training for the Office of Fair Trading and the Office of Telecommunications.

In addition, subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary token Supplementary Estimate, the Departmental Expenditure Limit for the Office of Telecommunications, Class IX, Vote 9, will be increased by £1,000 from £2,400,000 to £2,401,000 and the gross running costs limit will be increased by £559,000 from £12,589,000 to £13,148,000. These changes result from partial take up of end-year flexibility carry forward of £179,000 and an increase of £380,000 to address increased regulatory action. These increases will be offset by a compensating increase in appropriations in aid.

Also, subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Departmental Expenditure Limit for the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, Class IX, Vote 10 will be increased by £671,000 from £1,000 to £672,000. The increase reflects the net effect of additional provision for expenditure on the introduction of the New Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA) and relocation costs, largely offset by higher VAT refunds and increased receipts from energy companies. The net increase represents the take up of end-year flexibility. The gross running costs limit for the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets will be increased by £13,300,000 from £62,115,000 to £75,415,000. The increase reflects the increase in expenditure on NETA, partially offset by the increase in VAT refunds.

All of the above increases will either be offset by transfers or charged to the Reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.