HC Deb 08 November 2001 vol 374 cc397-8W
14. Simon Hughes

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has for further allocations to spending Departments from the contingency fund during the remainder of this financial year. [11343]

Mr. Andrew Smith

The Contingencies Fund is used to advance urgent resources to departments pending approval of the spending through estimates in the normal manner. There are therefore no plans to make allocations from it, as it is not a budgeting concept. Allocations may be made from the Departmental Expenditure Limit Reserve to meet genuinely unforeseen contingencies. Any such resources additional to departmental budgets will be reported to Parliament through the Supplementary Estimates procedure in the normal way.