§ Mr. PearsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans he has to amend his Department's Departmental Expenditure Limit and running costs limit for 2000–01. [138172]
§ Mr. Chris SmithSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate for Class XI, Vote 1, the DCMS Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) 383W for 2000–01 will be increased by £15,679,000 from £1,014,886,000 to £1,030,565,000 and the running costs limit by £2,284,000 from £32,972,000 to £35,256,000.
This is to provide for the use of £2,240,000 of the proceeds from the sale by the British Library of 25 Southampton Buildings for meeting commitments under the Comprehensive Spending Review to various national museums and galleries; and for the use of £521,000 of the sale proceeds for meeting commitments against research, surveys and other services; to provide £2,500,000 for the development of Culture On-Line; to take up DEL end-year flexibility of £10,405,000 on programme expenditure as set out in Table 7 of the Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper (Cm 4812) published on 18 July 2000; a transfer of £950,000 from the Department for Education and Employment (Class I, Vote 14) for awards to dance and drama students; a transfer of £300,000 to the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (Class III, Vote 4) for the maintenance of Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square following the transfer to the Greater London Authority from 1 October 2000; a payment of £210,000 from the Department of Trade and Industry (Class IX, Vote 1) for Sector Challenge funding of media projects; to take up DEL end-year flexibility of £1,448,000 on running costs expenditure as set out in Table 7 of the Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper (Cm 4812) published on 18 July 2000; a transfer of £676,000 from the Cabinet Office for modernising Government expenses; and to provide for receipts of £1,816,000 from the National Lottery Distribution Fund to meet additional costs of the National Lottery Commission in the appointment of a new Lottery operator and the implementation of the licence.
The increases will be offset by transfers, savings or a charge on the DEL Reserve, and will not, therefore, add to the planned total of public expenditure.