HC Deb 24 February 2004 vol 418 cc10-1WS
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr. Ben Bradshaw)

Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Forestry Commission's DEL will be reduced by £1,450,000 from £84,620,000 to £83,170,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

Change Voted New DEL Non-voted Total
Resource -1,450 78,097 2,653 80,750
Capital 833 2,657 3,490
Depreciation* -1,070 - -1,070
Total -1,450 77,860 5,310 83,170
*Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from transfers of £1,200,000 and £250,000 to the Scottish Executive and National Assembly for Wales respectively. This transfer is required to fund functions transferred from the Forestry Commission Westminster Vote (which covers activities in England and those functions which it carries out on a GB-wide basis), to Forestry Commission Scotland and Wales following the recommendations of the Forestry Devolution Review.