HC Deb 17 July 2003 vol 409 cc590-1W
Norman Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 4 July 2003,Official Report, column 548W, on animal testing, what factors underlay the underspend in the budget available for the development and promotion of alternatives to animal use in (a) 2000–01 and (b) 2001–02. [125282]

Caroline Flint

I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 4 July 2003,Official Report, column 548W.

The information in the previous answer relating to the spend in financial years 2000–01 to 2002–03 is shown in resource accounting terms. Resource accounting measures the actual value of goods and services received. Previously, the spend was measured in cash accounting terms—this measured the actual money leaving the Home Office's account.

At the end of each of the first of the two years in question there was a certain amount of expenditure for which the goods and services had not been received (termed a "pre-payment"), which was not recorded in the figures provided in resource accounting terms, but would have been recorded in cash accounting terms. The figures, including these pre-payments, are as follows.

£
Financial year Budget Actual spend in resource terms Underspend Prepayments at end of year
2000–01 265,000 170,203 94,797 108,718
2001–02 280,000 173,906 106,094 1,12,038
2002–03 280,000 272,104 7,896 6,797

These prepayments affected the situation in 2000–01 and in 2001–02, but by the end of 2002–03 they were minimal, and the spend in resource terms for that year was only £7,896 below the budget. There are several reasons why the projects which constituted prepayments did not start early enough in the financial year to be counted in resource accounting terms. The start of a research project is often delayed. That might be, for example, because the principal researcher takes longer than predicted to identify research assistants. These delays in turn can mean that potential underspends are identified too late for additional projects to be identified, and the work started, before the end of the financial year.