Written Statement of 5 March 2004

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

  Waterways Ireland
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Angela Smith)
  Copies of the Waterways Ireland Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2001 have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

  Resources

  Capital

  DfES

  Change

  New DEL

  Of which: Voted

  Non-voted

  Change

  New DEL

  Of which: Voted

  Non-voted

  £0

  £0

  £0

  £0

  £0

  £0

  £0

  £0

  RfR l

  276,464

  22,161,756

  7,258,103

  14,903,653

  72,049

  3,410,719

  2,290,128

  1,120,591

  RfR 2

  215,797

  695,928

  695,928

  0

  2,911

  30,536

  30,536

  0

  RfR 3

  85,463

  285,476

  285,476

  0

  0

  51

  51

  0

  OFSTED

  1,217

  208,635

  208,635

  0

  -1,142

  1,758

  1,758

  0

  Sub Total

  578,941

  23,351,795

  8,448,142

  14,903,653

  73,818

  3,443,064

  2,322,473

  1,120,591

  Depreciation*

  -556

  -47,544

  -11,847

  -35,697

  0

  0

  0

  0

  Total

  578,385

  23,304,251

  8,436,295

  14,867,956

  73,818

  3,443,064

  2,322,473

  1,120,591

  *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.

  Within the administration cost limits changes, the impact is set out in the following table:

  DfES

  Original £'000

  Change £'000

  Revised £'000

  DfES (RfR1)

  207,124

  12,796

  219,920

  Sure Start (RfR 2)

  9,136

  4,268

  13,404

  Children's Fund (RfR3

  4,400

  1,181

  5,581

  OFSTED

  30,000

  30,000

  Total

  250,660

  18,245

  268,905

  RESOURCE DEL

  The change in the resource element of the DEL of £578,941,000 arises from a £220,452,000 decrease in the voted element of the resource DEL and an increase of £799,393,000 in the non-voted element of the resource DEL mainly to the Department's non-departmental public bodies.

  Voted Resource DEL

  The £220,452,000 decrease in the voted element of the resource DEL arises from a £522,929,000 decrease in RfR1; from the movement of £312,996,000 to non-Voted Resource DEL; the movement of £44,370,000 to voted capital grants and £208,000 to non-voted capital; the decrease in Voted provision as a result of receiving Voted Appropriations in Aid (A-in-A) of £259,638,000 towards the Higher Education Funding Council for England's Non-Voted expenditure: the net transfer to the Department of Health of £4,372,000 for the
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  This document provides details of Waterways Ireland's activities, its performance, and its expenditure for that year.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

  Supplementary Estimates
  The Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Charles Clarke)
  Subject to Parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Education and Skills DEL (including the Office for Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools (OFSTED) which has a separate estimate) will be increased by £652,759,000 from £26,142,100,000 to £26,794,859,000 and the administration costs limits will be increased by £18,245,000 from £250,660,000 to £268,905,000.

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

  Teenage Pregnancy Fund and the Children's Trust; the net transfer to the Home Office of £880,000 for Prison Education; the transfer to the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs of £500,000 for the school milk subsidy scheme; the transfer to the Department of Trade and Industry of £279,000 for the Women's Resource Centre and the School Teachers Pay Review Body; the transfer to the Department for Work and Pensions of £93,000 for the Parental involvement in Action Team; the net transfer in from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of £1,303,000 for the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit; the take up of £95,816,000 End of Year Flexibility (EYF) provision; the take up of £761,000 for the Education in Prisons scheme and the take up of Invest to Save Budget of £100,000 for the Core Cluster Pilot project. The transfer to the Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England (OFSTED) of £75,000 for the project on best practice to food and nutrition in primary schools and early years, the net virement of £4,802,000 from RfR2 for Standards Fund Grants, and the net virement of £2,300,000 to RfR3 for Children's Fund Grants are departmental DEL neutral.

  The £215,797,000 increase in RfR2; arises from the take up of £221,599,000 End of Year Flexibility (EYF) provision for Sure Start administrative expenditure (£468,000) and for Sure Start programmes (£221,131,000); the DEL neutral virements of £4,802,000 to RFR1 for Standards Fund Grant payments and the £1,000,000 virement to RfR3 Children's Fund for Children and Young People programmes.
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  The £85,463,000 increase in RfR3 arises from the take up of £82,163,000 End of Year Flexibility provision for Children's Fund administration (£1,090,000) and for programme expenditure (£81,073,000); the net DEL neutral virements of £2,300,000 from RfR1 and £1,000,000 from RfR2 for Children's Fund Current Grants.

  The £1,217,000 increase in the Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England (OFSTED) arises from a £75,000 DEL neutral transfer from RfRl for the whole school project on best practice to food and nutrition in primary schools and early years; the £450,000 virement to capital and the increase of £1,592,000 due to the reclassification of voted A-in-A to Non-Operating A-in-A.

  ADMINISTRATION COST LIMITS

  The £18,245,000 increase in the Administration Cost limit arises from a £12,796,000 increase in the Administration Cost limit for RfRl from the take up of £14,942,000 end of year flexibility; the residual machinery of Government transfer in from the Department of Health of £1,733,000; the transfer in from the Home Office of £248,000 for shared services and residual machinery of Government changes and the transfer out of £47,000 to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Regional Government Office core work agenda; the decrease in admin costs from an increase in admin receipts of £280,000 for matching secondment expenditure and the DEL neutral virement of £3,800,000 to RfR2 Sure Start Administrative expenditure.

  The increase in the administration cost limit for RfR2 of £4,268,000 arises from the take up of £468,000 end of year flexibility and the DEL neutral virement of £3,800,000 to RfR2 Sure Start administrative expenditure.

  The £1,181,000 increase in the administration cost limit for RfR3 arises from the take up of £1,090,000 end of year flexibility and the reclassification of £91,000 programme to administrative expenditure.

  NON-VOTED RESOURCE DEL

  The £799,393,000 increase in Non-Voted Resource DEL arises from a £312,996,000 virement of Voted Resource DEL for various non-Departmental Public Bodies (of which £202,638,000 is for the Learning Skills Council for the delivery of key programmes: Employer Training Pilots and for the Higher Education Excellence Challenge); the take up of end of year flexibility of £210,815,000 (of which £136,900,000 is to the Learning Skills Council for current grants); the £259,638,000 increase in Higher Education Funding Council for England's expenditure with matching voted Resource A-in-A for Science Research Investment Fund and Higher Education Innovation Fund programmes; the transfer in from the Department of Health of £16,745,000 to the Higher Education Funding Council for England to fund various hospital and university projects; the draw down of £872,000 provision for Adult Learning Inspectorate and the Learning Skills Council and the virement of £1,673,000 to non-voted capital.
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  CAPITAL DEL

  The change in the capital element of the DEL of £73,818,000 arises from a £60,988,000 increase in the voted element of the capital DEL and an increase of £12,830,000 in the non-voted element of the capital DEL.

  VOTED CAPITAL DEL

  The £60,988,000 increase to the voted element of the Capital DEL arises from a£59,219,000 increase in RfRl Voted Capital from a virement increase of £44,370,000 from Voted Resource DEL; from the £700,000 decrease to Non-Voted Capital for the Student Loans Company, from the Machinery of Government transfer from the Department of Health of £171,000; from the take-up of End of Year flexibility of £7,289,000 and the DEL neutral virement of £8,089,000 from RfR2 Sure Start.

  The £2,911,000 increase in RfR2 Voted Capital, from the take up of £11,000,000 End of Year Flexibility (EYF) provision for Sure Start Local Authority Capital Grants and the DE L neutral virement of £8,089,000 to RfRl for Standards Fund Capital grants to Local Authorities.

  The £1,142,000 decrease in OFSTED Voted capital, from the classification of £1,592,000 Voted A-in-A receipts to Non-Operating capital receipts and the virement of £450,000 voted resource to voted capital.

  NON-VOTED CAPITAL DEL

  The £12,830,000 increase to the non-voted element of Capital DEL arises from the take-up of EYF of £7,457,000 (of which £3,957,000 to the Learning Skills Council for the delivery of capital programmes); the virement of £1,673,000 of NDPB resource for capital activity; the virement of £700,000 voted capital for Student Loans Company capital programmes; the virement of £208,000 from voted resource and the In-Year take up of £2,792,000.

  Teachers' Pension Scheme
  The Minister for School Standards (Mr. David Miliband)
  Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £111.8 million is being sought in a spring supplementary estimate for the Teachers' Pension Scheme. Pending that approval, expenditure estimated at £30 million will be met by a repayable cash advance from the Contingencies Fund.

  The Teachers' Pension Scheme Fund is managed by the Department for Education and Skills and administered under contract by Capita Business Service Ltd. The Department's funding to Capita is completed on a daily basis with the funded amount being determined by the "net cash requirement" for payments that Capita makes on behalf of the Teachers' Pension Scheme.

  Cash drawn down from the Consolidated Fund is greater at the beginning of each month because income and related cash arrives too late to fund this expenditure. To enable the Department to meet its funding obligations the £30 million will be required to make up the shortfall between the funding requirement and the Spring Supplementary Estimate provision becoming available.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  Water Action Plan
  The Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn)
  I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses a copy of DFID's new Water Action Plan. It sets out how DFID will contribute to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), through our commitments to water supply, sanitation and water resource management.

  Over one billion people do not have access to safe water to drink. Over two billion lack adequate sanitation. Hundreds of millions of people live in areas where there is an overall and increasing shortage of water. Polluted ecosystems and poor water management have a detrimental effect on the health and livelihoods of poor people, and on economic growth. Water and sanitation are consistently among the top priorities of poor people in most developing countries. This does not however always result in action by Governments.

  The problems are complex. The approach set out in the Water Action Plan recognises that efforts to improve water supply, sanitation or water resource management
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  are most effective when they support developing country Governments' own plans. Against this background, DFID's Water Action Plan sets out a plan of work at international regional and national levels. This includes: making sure water and sanitation figure prominently in policy discussions with our main partner countries; providing evidence of the links between improved water management, water supply and sanitation and achieving all the MDGs, and ensuring that we are making use of this evidence in our policy dialogue; and improving the way the international system works, by focusing support on key international partnerships and networks, particularly those that can improve co-ordination in the water sector.

  The next step is putting this Action Plan into operation, to ensure a coherent approach to water and sanitation issues at national, regional and international levels. This will include developing milestones against which progress can be assessed. As part of its review of progress, DFID will also establish a regular water and sanitation forum in the UK for sharing knowledge and ideas with development partners.

  The Water Action Plan is also available on the DFID website: www.dfid.gov.uk.

  Water Action Plan
  The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos)
  My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development has made the following Statement.

  I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses a copy of DfID's new Water Action Plan. It sets out how DfID will contribute to meeting the millennium development goals (MDGs), through our commitments to water supply, sanitation and water resource management.

  Over 1 billion people do not have access to safe water to drink. Over 2 billion lack adequate sanitation. Hundreds of millions of people live in areas where there is an overall and increasing shortage of water. Polluted ecosystems and poor water management have a detrimental effect on the health and livelihoods of poor people, and on economic growth. Water and sanitation are consistently among the top priorities of poor people in most developing countries. This does not, however, always result in action by governments.

  The problems are complex. The approach set out in the Water Action Plan recognises that efforts to improve water supply, sanitation or water resource management are most effective when they support developing country governments' own plans. Against this background, DfID's Water Action Plan sets out a plan of work at international regional and national
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  levels. This includes: making sure water and sanitation figure prominently in policy discussions with our main partner countries; providing evidence of the links between improved water management, water supply and sanitation and achieving all the MDGs, and ensuring that we are making use of this evidence in our policy dialogue; and improving the way the international system works, by focusing support on key international partnerships and networks, particularly those that can improve co-ordination in the water sector.

  The next step is putting this action plan into operation to ensure a coherent approach to water and sanitation issues at national, regional and international levels. This will include developing milestones against which progress can he assessed. As part of its review of progress, DfID will also establish a regular water and sanitation forum in the UK for sharing knowledge and ideas with development partners.

  The Water Action Plan is also available on the DfID website: www.dfid.gov.uk.

  Waterways Ireland: Annual Report and Accounts
  Baroness Amos
  My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has made the following Ministerial Statement:

  Copies of the Waterways Ireland annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2001 have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. This document provides details of Waterways Ireland's activities, its performance, and its expenditure for that year.