HC Deb 13 February 2002 vol 380 cc447-51W
Joan Ryan

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to change the departmental expenditure limit and administration costs limits for her Department and the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets. [36525]

Ms Hewitt

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate the Department of Trade and Industry DEL will be increased by £69,043,000 from£4,766,430,000 to £4,835,473,000 and the Administration Costs limit will be reduced by £23,020,000 from £435,345,000 to £412,325,000. This includes the impact on the DTI DEL of the Machinery of Government transfers from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, which were still under consideration when the announcement was made regarding the Winter Supplementaries of both Departments.

Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is as set out in the following table:

£000
Resources
Change 50,539
New DEL 4,022,145
of which:
Voted 895,145
Non-voted 3,127,000
Capital
Change 18,504

£000
New DEL 813,328
of which:
Voted -148,330
Non-voted 961,658

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:

  1. (i) the transfer of £40,300,000 of non-Voted DEL to reflect Machinery of Government transfers from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions in respect of Regional Development Agencies;
  2. (ii) to reflect the reclassification of the Private Finance Initiative Contract relating to the National Physical Laboratory as on-balance sheet, by transferring £11,220,000 to capital;
  3. (iii) to transfer £1,506,000 to the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions for the acquisition and reclamation of strategically sited land in furtherance of the Rover Task Force diversity, modernisation and regeneration objectives;
  4. (iv) to reclassify from capital £395,000 for the Rover Task Force Modernisation and Diversification Projects (subheads U3 and A2), of which £175,000 will be transferred to British Trade International in connection with Autosport International and Overseas Links;
  5. (v) to record £497,531,000 of voted current receipts from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and to increase non-voted resource expenditure by an equivalent amount to reflect revised agreement on the sums to be recorded as a Machinery of Government transfer related to Regional Development Agencies;
  6. (vi) to reclassify £650,000 from voted to non-voted DEL to reflect the funding of Regional Development Agencies via grant in aid following the above Machinery of Government changes;
  7. (vii) to reclassify £3,010,000 from voted to non-voted DEL in connection with the funding via Regional Development Agencies of innovative schemes to establish broadband networks;
  8. (viii) to reclassify £441,000 from voted to non-voted DEL in connection with the funding via Regional Development Agencies of regional manufacturing centres;
  9. (ix) to reclassify £3,218,000 from voted to non-voted DEL in connection with the funding via Regional Development Agencies of Regional Supply Offices;
  10. (x) to transfer £250,000 to the devolved Administration of Scotland in connection with the funding of innovative schemes to establish broadband networks;
  11. (xi) to transfer £250,000 from the devolved Administration of Scotland as indemnity for costs incurred by administrators of Atlantic Telecom Group plc for costs of continuing provision of telephone services;
  12. (xii) to increase by £900,000 the non-Voted resource DEL of Postwatch to be offset by an equivalent increase in voted licence fee receipts;
    13. 449W
  13. (xiii) to transfer an additional £257,000 in administration costs and £311,000 in resource (of which £50,000 to be vired to administration to reflect funding via ACAS) from the Department for Education and Skills for publicity and evaluation in relation to the Work Life Balance project to reflect Machinery of Government transfers;
  14. (xiv) to utilise £105,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement transferred from the Department for Education and Skills for publicity and evaluation in relation to the Work Life Balance project to reflect Machinery of Government transfers
  15. (xv) to transfer £100,000 from the Home Office in relation to the Work Life Balance project to reflect Machinery of Government transfers;
  16. (xvi) to transfer £11,000 in administration costs from the Home Office for the administration of the Easter and British summer time; Sunday trading, street markets and Chartered Fairs Projects to reflect Machinery of Government Transfers;
  17. (xvii) to transfer from capital £5,440,000 in connection with British Trade International to fund IT development under the ELGAR PFI contract;
  18. (xviii) to reclassify from capital £471,000 to fund Claims Handling in the Redundancy Payments Service system upgrade;
  19. (xix) to transfer £50,000 from the Lord Chancellor's Department in support of the Debt Advice Project;
  20. (xx) to utilise £3,000,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to increase the External Financing Limit of British Coal Corporation to provide for compensation payments to dismissed miners.

RfR2

  1. (i) to take up £5,000,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to fund Higher Education Innovation Fund projects;
  2. (ii) to take up £4,000,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to fund Exploitation of Discoveries at Public Sector Research Establishments;
  3. (iii) to take up £2,884,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to increase non-voted expenditure of the Medical Research Council;
  4. (iv) to take up £2,350,000 of the non-voted Science Departmental Unallocated Provision to increase non-voted expenditure of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council;
  5. (v) to take up £2,862,000 of the Science non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision to increase non-voted expenditure of the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils;
  6. (vi) to transfer £334,000 of capital from the Synchrotron Radiation Source project to fund additional non-voted expenditure of £334,000 to the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils;
    7. 450W
  7. (vii) to take up £782,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to fund Science Enterprise Challenge projects;
  8. (viii) to take up £146,000 of the Science non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision for funding of Foresight LINK Awards.
  9. The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:

RfR1

  1. (i) to reclassify £2,175,000 and make a transfer of this amount to the Department for Education and Skills for MG Rover training;
  2. (ii) to reflect the reclassification of the Private Finance Initiative Contract relating to the National Physical Laboratory as on-balance sheet, by transferring £11,220,000 from resource;
  3. (iii) to reclassify to resource £395,000 for the Rover Task Force Modernisation and Diversification Projects;
  4. (iv) to record £636,558,000 of capital receipts from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and to increase non-voted resource expenditure by an equivalent amount to reflect revised agreement on the sums to be recorded as a Machinery of Government transfer related to Regional Development Agencies;
  5. (v) to transfer £57,000 from the Department for Education and Skills for publicity and evaluation in relation to the Work Life Balance project to reflect Machinery of Government transfers;
  6. (vi) to transfer to administration £5,440,000 in connection with British Trade International to fund IT development under the ELGAR PFI contract;
  7. (vii) to reclassify to administration £471,000 to fund Claims Handling in the Redundancy Payments Service system upgrade;
  8. (viii) to utilise £435,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement for the Capital Modernisation Fund for the Innovative Clusters Fund for the regions, and reclassify to reflect funding via Regional Development Agencies.

RfR2

  1. (i) increases in non-Voted expenditure of £3,000,000 by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, funded by a £3,000,000 reduction in voted provision for the Synchrotron Radiation Source project;
  2. (ii) to take up £6,063,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement from underspends on Joint Infrastructure Fund projects to fund projects under the Science Research Investment Fund;
  3. (iii) to take up £8,044,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to increase non-voted expenditure by the Medical Research Council;
  4. (iv) to take up £1,500,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to increase non-voted expenditure by the Natural Environment Research Council;
    5. 451W
  5. (v) to transfer £334,000 from the Synchrotron Radiation Source project to fund additional resource expenditure of the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils;

Also, subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the departmental expenditure limit for the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets will be increased by £1,000 from £1,316,000 to £1,317,000. The Administration Costs Limit will increase by £1,220,000 from £36,130,000 to £37,350,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is as set out in the following table:

£000
Resources
Change 1
New DEL 352
of which:
Voted 352
Non-voted 0
Capital
Change 0
New DEL 965
of which:
Voted 965
Non-voted —

All of the above increases will either be offset by interdepartmental transfers, take-up of End-Year Flexibility or use of Departmental Unallocated Provisions and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.

Operator Blocks Work programme (drilling only)
Alkane Energy UK Ltd. NX92, NX93, NY02, NY03 One firm well
Alkane Energy UK Ltd. NT26, NT36 One firm well
Alkane Energy UK Ltd. NS65, NS75 One firm well
Alkane Energy UK Ltd. SK21, SK22 One firm well
Alkane Energy UK Ltd. SJ94 One drill-or-drop well
Alkane Energy UK Ltd. SJ18 One drill-or-drop well
Alkane Energy UK Ltd. SE22 One drill-or-drop well
Alkane Energy UK Ltd. S078, S079 One drill-or-drop well
Sterling Resources (UK) Ltd. SU42 One drill-or-drop well
Sonorex Oil and Gas Ltd. ST47, ST48 One drill-or-drop well
Northern Petroleum (GB) Ltd. TQ75, TQ85, TQ95, TR05 One drill-or-drop well
Black Rock Resources (UK) Ltd. SZ49, SZ59 One drill-or-drop well
Stratagas plc SE74 Three drill-or-drop CBM wells
Stratagas plc SJ82, SJ91, SJ92, SK11, SK02, SK12, SK21 Three drill-or-drop CBM wells and a drill-or-drop Gob Gas well
Stratagas plc SJ48 Three drill-or-drop CBM wells
Stratagas plc SN40 Three drill-or-drop CBM wells
Stag Energy Ltd. SK65, SK66 One drill-or-drop well
Warwick Energy Exploration and Production Ltd. SU40, SU30 One drill-or-drop well
Warwick Energy Exploration and Production Ltd. SE68, SE78, SE88, SE98 Two drill-or-drop wells
Archean Energy (UK) Ltd. TQ22, TQ32 One drill-or-drop well
Archean Energy (UK) Ltd. SJ28, SJ29, SJ38, SJ39 One drill-or-drop well
Coalbed Methane Ltd. NS76, NS77 One drill-or-drop well