Departmental Expenditure Limit (Hansard, 26 February 2001)

§ Mr. Wills

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates for Class I, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) and Vote 3 (the Employment Service), the Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) for 2000–01 (excluding Welfare to Work) will be increased by £1,538,000 from £18,996,375,000 to £18,997,913,000.

This overall increase is made up of a DEL decrease on Vote 1 and an increase on Vote 3 of £5,530,000 and £31,068,000 respectively and a decrease of £24,000,000 in non-voted expenditure. As a result, the Voted element of the Departmental Expenditure Limit (excluding Welfare to Work) will be increased by £25,538,000 from £17,470,053,000 to £17,495,591,000 The non-Voted element will be decreased by £24,000,000 from £1,526,322,000 to £1,502,322,000.

The changes in Vote 1 are the result of the take up of £6,000,000 of the end-year flexibility entitlement announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in Table 7 of the 1999–2000 Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper (Cm 4812); a switch from non-voted credit approvals of £24,000,000 to capital support for former grant maintained schools; transfers of: £50,000 from Class IV, Vote 1 (Home Office: administration, police, probation, immigration and other services, England and Wales) as a contribution towards developing Connexions Direct; £99,000 to Class IV, Vote 1 (Home Office: administration, police, probation, immigration and other services, England and Wales) for Drug Awareness Teams; £455,000 from Class II, Vote 2 (Department of Health: administration, miscellaneous health and personal social services, England) to support the Drag Advisers Project; £67,000 to Class II, Vote 2 (Department of Health, administration, miscellaneous health and personal social services, England) for Child Protection Tribunals; £750,000 from Class II, Vote 1 (Department of Health: hospital, community health, family health and related 378W services, England) for the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College; £1,761,000 to Class XII, Vote 1 (Department of Social Security: Central Government administered benefits and other payments for Intercalating Students and to cover additional hardship payments to young people who would normally be receiving bridging allowance; £189,000 to Class IV, Vote 1 (Ministry of Defence: operational and support costs, logistic services and systems procurement and research) in respect of an intake of Modern Apprentices at MOD training centres; £5,014,000 from the Scottish Executive in connection with Open University students; £288,000 from Class I, Vote 3 (Employment Service) for a Modernise to Save project, contribution towards consultation events and for work undertaken by the University for Industry; £39,971,000 to Class I, Vote 3 (Employment Service) as support for Rover redundancies, modernising the ES, Access to Work and other smaller miscellaneous transfers.

The increase in the provision on Vote 3 is the result of the take up of £5,700,000 of end-year flexibility entitlement; £39,683,000 net transfers with Class 1, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services); the transfer of £14,315,000 to Class XII, Vote 3 (Department of Social Security: administration) to cover expenditure on ONE.

The departmental running costs limit (excluding Welfare to Work) will be increased by £32,220,000 from £1,092,394,000 to £1,124,614,000. This is made up of changes to Vote 1, Vote 3 and Vote 5 of £4,984,000, £26,736,000 and £500,000 respectively. The changes on Vote 1 are as a result of the take up of £6,000,000 EYF, the net transfer of £1,016,000 to Class I, Vote 3 (Employment Service). The changes on Vote 3 are the result of the take up of £5,700,000 of end-year flexibility entitlement, the transfer of £14,315,000 to Class XII, Vote 3 (Department of Social Security: administration) and the transfer of £35,351,000 from Class I, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services). The change on Vote 5 (Sure Start) is as a result of a virement of £500,000 from programme provision.

379W

The Department's Welfare to Work provision is being increased by £176,304,000 from £1,255,695,000 to £1,431,999,000. The increase is made up of changes on Votes 1 and 3 of £173,034,000 and £3,270,000 respectively. The change on Vote 1 is as the result of the take up of £167,000,000 New Deal for Schools additional funding and £5,000,000 for the National E-Learning Foundation as announced in the pre-Budget statement and the draw down of new provision of £1,034,000. The change on Vote 3 is as a result of the draw down of £3,420,000 of Windfall Tax provision to fund additional expenditure on the New Deal for Disabled People and the New Deal for Partners and net transfers of £150,000 with Class XII, Vote 3 (Department of Social Security: administration) for New Deal for Partners and New Deal for Disabled People.

The departmental Welfare to Work running costs limit will be increased by £4,012,000 from £196,876,000 to £200,888,000. The change on Vote 1 is as a result of the take up of £78,000 of new provision. The change on Vote 3 is as a result of the draw down of £2,170,000 of Windfall Tax for the extension of New Deal for Disabled

£
	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	¹2000–01
Public opinion research	520,850	862,912	1,408,908	1,687,050	1,989,179
Television	2,185,994	3,509,611	6,980,488	1,806,788	7,520,727
Radio	1,354,273	1,123,727	1,966,919	1,838,680	1,741,209
Press	2,647,915	2,250,110	4,385,368	4,253,847	4,983,668
Direct mail	²—	227,013	112,921	163,454	³118,342
Total	6,709,032	7,973,373	14,854,604	9,749,819	16,352,125
¹ Estimated
² Comparable information not available
³ To 31 January 2001

Recent research projects undertaken in support of publicity campaigns include research on the best ways of communicating the benefits of parents getting more involved in their children's education; of employers recruiting disabled people; and of people taking up jobs in child care occupations. Expenditure on advertising in 2000–01 includes £1,958,111 to raise awareness among young people of the benefits of staying on in learning; £2,116,779 to increase participation in New Deal 50+; £1,815,141 to encourage those out of work to take up taster courses in ICT and £2,178,120 to encourage recruitment into the child care sectors.