Departmental Expenditure Limit (Hansard, 15 February 2001)

§ Mr. Milburn

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates for Class II, Votes 1 and 2., the overall Departmental Expenditure Limit for Class II, which includes the Department of Health and the Foods Standard Agency, will be increased by £196,888,000 from £45,090,755,000 to £45,287,643,000.

Of this increase the Department of Health Departmental Expenditure Limit for 2000–01 will be increased by £196,888,000 from £44,997,888,000 to £45,194,776,000. The increase is the net effect of changes to Class II, Vote I (Hospital, community health, family health and related services, England) of £156,025,000 made up of £74,977,000 in respect of take up of end year flexibility, (£35,217,000) for capital and (£39,760,000) for family health services as set out in Table 7 of the Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper Cm4812, published on 18 July 2000, and £82,214,000 Trust end year flexibility; transfers from Northern Ireland of £1,373,000 (£1,307,000) for Out of Area Treatments and (£66,000) for contributions to medical training costs of Royal Colleges; £144,000 from the Scottish Executive for contributions to medical training costs of Royal Colleges; £92,000 from the National Assembly for Wales for contributions to medical training costs of Royal Colleges and £88,000 from Class III, Vote 1. (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions) for the Rough Sleepers Unit; partially offset by transfers of £512,000 to the National Assembly for Wales for Out of Area Treatments; £1,065,000 to Class XII, Vote 2 (Department of Social Security: administration) for operating costs of the Road Traffic Accident element of the Compensation

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each of the last 12 months for which information is available. [150100]

§ Mr. Denham

The information requested is in the table.

Recovery Unit; £536,000 to Class IV, Vote 1 (Home Office administration, police, probation, immigration and other services. England and Wales) (£221,000) for Drug Action Teams Development funding and (£315,000) for Drugs Action Teams Recruitment Initiative and £750,000 to Class I, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) for the Institute of Psychiatry new research facilities.

An increase of £1,352,000 for Class II, Vote 2 (Department of Health, administration, miscellaneous health and personal social services, England) is the net effect of transfers (detailed below) and the take-up of £4,000,000 (running costs) end year flexibility as set out in Table 7 of the Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper Cm4812, published on 18 July 2000. Transfers of £1,106,000 from the Scottish Executive (£141,000 running costs) for reserved health bodies; £19,000 (running costs) from Northern Ireland for reserved health bodies; £459,000 from Class IV, Vote 1 (Home Office administration, police, probation, immigration and other services, England and Wales) £130,000 (running costs) for the Youth Justice Board inspections and (£329,000) for drug grants and drug related initiatives; £200,000 from Class XII, Vote 3 (Department of Social Security: administration) for the teenage pregnancy campaign; offset by net transfers of £464,000 to Class X, Vote 1 (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) (£1,118,000) for the BSE Inquiry, less (£654,000) for research into BSE; and £388,000 to Class 1, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) (£455,000) for the drug advisers project, less (£67,000) for Protection of Children's Act Tribunal costs; and transfers of £3,000,000 to Class V, Vote 1 (Lord Chancellor's Department) for start up costs for the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Services (CAFCASS) and £580,000 to Class III, Vote 1 (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions) for the Rough Sleepers budget.

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Within the departmental DEL there is also a net transfer of £308,000 from Class II, Vote 2 (Department of Health, administration, miscellaneous health and personal social services, England) to Class II, Vote 1 (Hospital, community health, family health and related services, England) of which £500,000 is reclassified as running costs following agreement by HM Treasury that Mental Health Review Tribunal clerk costs should no longer be classified as programme costs. There is no increase in Mental Health Review Tribunal costs as a result of this change.

The Department of Health's gross Running Cost Limit will be increased by £4,790,000 from £302,490,000 to £307,280,000 as detailed above.

The external finance limit for NHS trusts has decreased by £140,242,000 from £451,000,000 to £310,758,000 comprising of a reduction in voted trust loans of £173,853,000 partially offset by a take up of £33,611,000 (non-voted) from HM Treasury for Public Finance Initiative schemes.

The external finance limit for the Medicines Control Agency has increased by £5,900,000 from £700,000 to £6,600,000 in respect of take up of end year flexibility entitlement as mentioned above.

There are no changes to the Food Standards Agency element of the DEL.

All increases will either be offset by transfers to or from other Departmental Expenditure Limits (detailed) or charges to the DEL reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.