Departmental Expenditure (Hansard, 3 December 2001)

§ Mr. Bercow
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he expects to spend the £920 million that was allocated to his Department for 2000–01 but not spent. [19527]

§ Dr. Whitehead
The 2000–01 underspend on the DETR Main Programmes Departmental Expenditure Limit became available for use in following years in accordance with the end-year flexibility arrangements (the set of rules by which Departments are allowed to carry forward unspent budget from one year to the next). The entitlement generated from 2000–01 and previous years was announced in Table 6 of Public Expenditure 2000–2001 Provisional Outturn (Cm 5243). £516 million end-year flexibility take up is being sought in the Winter Supplementary Estimates for the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions; £93 million has been transferred to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (as part of machinery of government changes) and further take-up will be sought in the spring Supplementary Estimates. Any unused end-year flexibility will be carried forward into future years.

§ Mr. Burstow
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will estimate the total unallocated funds within his departmental expenditure limit(a) at the start of the financial year and (b) to date; and what was the month seven forecast on outturn underspend against his departmental expenditure limit in (i) real and (ii) percentage terms. [19442]

§ Dr. Whitehead
The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions Departmental Annual Report for 2001 (Cm 5105) contains the Departmental Unallocated Provision (DUP) set for the present financial year in table A6a. Draw-down of the DUP has been reported to Parliament in the Winter Supplementary Estimates for the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions presented on 29 November. Outturn against six month forecast for each Request for Resources will be published in the Winter Supplementary Estimates Summary Request for Supply as usual.