§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what additional expenditure over and above that identified prior to 1 April 2002(a) was spent in 2002–03 and (b) will be spent in 2003–04 on national and regional resilience work for essential services; whether arrangements exist to release expenditure during the current financial year for resilience projects under consideration for essential services; and if he will make a statement. [113924]
§ Mr. Jamieson[holding answer 16 May 2003]: My Department's contribution to the essential services element of the Government's resilience capabilities programme has been undertaken within our existing budget. To support our overall effort on improving resilience we have committed £1.8 million capital this year and £0.6 million additional annual running costs.
The capabilities that we are working to deliver have been developed to allow the Government to deal with the fullest range of scenarios. Should a specific additional urgent operational need arise, at any point of the spending cycle, action would be taken to meet it. The public expenditure framework the Government have put in place provides the flexibility to deal with unexpected pressures.