HC Deb 26 February 2001 vol 363 c401W
Ms Coffey

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans them are to amend his Department's departmental expenditure limit and running costs limit for 2000–01. [151193]

Mr. Chris Smith

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate for Class XI, Vote 1, the DCMS Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) for 2000–01 will be reduced by £9,839,000 from £1,030,565,000 to £1,020,726,000 and the running costs limit will be reduced by £4,400,000 from £35,256,000 to £30,856,000.

The changes are to provide for the use of £5,700,000 of the proceeds from the sale by the British Library of 25 Southampton Buildings for meeting the costs of a new conservation and digitisation studio, a further amount of £9,840,000 from the sale proceeds is being surrendered to the Consolidated Fund as Extra Receipts; to provide for the use of £3,000,000 of the proceeds from the sale of 6 Burlington Gardens to assist English Heritage with the purchase of land for the construction of a new visitor centre at Stonehenge, and for use by the Department of £2,000,000 of the sale proceeds for capital works at its headquarters buildings; to provide for a reduction of £4,400,000 in the gross running costs of the Royal Parks offset by an increase of the same amount in their other current expenditure to reflect the reclassification of the expenditure of the Royal Parks Constabulary out of running costs; and to provide for increased expenditure of £630,000 on DCMS gross running costs offset by an increase in recoveries of eligible deductible input VAT.