§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the effect has been on probation areas in England and Wales of the 2 per cent. underspend imposed in December 2003; and how many areas have appealed against the decision. [160807]
§ Paul GogginsThe 2 per cent. underspend and compulsory carry forward requirement was introduced for the following reasons
The Probation Service was heading for a forecast overspend in 2003-04 and it was necessary to reduce spending to bring expenditure back into line with budget.The probation areas had an average 11 per cent. increase in resources for 2003–04 and the increase for 2004–05 is much lower at 3.5 per cent. It was therefore considered desirable to smooth the annual settlements by moving 2 per cent. from 2003–04 to 2004–05, therefore making the relative financial settlements 9 per cent. and 5.5 per cent.28 areas have managed to carry forward the full 2 per cent. or more into their budget for 2004–05. A further eight areas have managed partial carry forwards.
The remaining six areas have appealed against the decision to have their budgets reduced by 2 per cent.
§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the reasons were for the increase of £47.2 million for Probation Headquarters in the Spring Supplementary Estimates; and how this money will be spent. [165876]
§ Paul GogginsA transfer of £30.5 million was made from the Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service to the National Probation Directorate primarily to fund Electronic Monitoring, the Standard Technical Environment for the Probation Service (STEPS) Information Technology roll-out and Probation Loan Charges.
A further transfer of 16.7 million was made from the Criminal Justice Information Technology Group to fund the STEPS Information Technology rollout.