Written Ministerial Statements

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Attorney-General (Mr Dominic Grieve)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Attorney-General’s total DEL will be increased by £10,977,000 from £686,875,000 to £697,852,000. Within the total DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ DEL will be reduced by £3,796,000 from £20,805,607,000 to £20,801,811,000 and the Administration budget will be increased by £2,300,000 from £321,187,000 to £323,487,000.

Within the DEL change, the impact on Resources and Capital is as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits (HM Revenue and Customs)

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of the supplementary estimate, the HM Revenue & Customs total DEL will be decreased by £500,000 from £3,706,842,000 to £3,706,342,000. Within the total DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits (Resource)

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Justine Greening)]

Subject to Parliamentary approval of the winter supplementary estimate, HM Treasury’s Resource DEL will be decreased by £20,657,000 from £206,740,000 to £186,083,000. The Administration Budget will be decreased by £21,957,000 from £159,551,000 to £137,594,000. The impact on resources, including the administration budget, is set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits (National Savings & Investments)

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, National Savings and Investments (NS&I) departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £15,994,000 to £168,402,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are set out in the following table:

Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Bill (Ministerial Correction)

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)]

On 15 November the Financial Secretary to the Treasury reported to Parliament on the operation of the UK’s Counter-Terrorist Asset Freezing Regime for the period July to September 2010.

During the Second Reading of the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Bill, I responded to the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz) about figures published in the report. My response appears on 15 November, Official Report, column 708.

The explanation I gave of the figures was incorrect. For the purpose of transparency and to ensure the report is correctly interpreted in the future I would like to clarify that explanation.

As of 30 September 2010, a total of 205 accounts containing just under £290,000 of suspected terrorist funds were frozen in the UK.

Of that £290,000 approximately £140,000 was frozen under the UK’s domestic terrorist asset freezing regime, which is mandated by UNSCR 1373 and implemented by the legislation which the Bill is intended to replace. The remaining £150,000 was frozen under the UN al-Qaeda and Taliban asset-freezing regime.

Directgov (Review)

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

I invited Martha Lane Fox, the Government’s digital champion, to undertake a strategic review of Directgov which was completed on 14 October 2010. This supported the work that the Efficiency and Reform Board had undertaken on channel shift and the opportunity for digital channels to support delivery of the spending review. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury and I wrote to Departments in September outlining our commitment to improving services and driving efficiencies by making digital the default channel for Government information and transactional services.

Martha Lane Fox submitted her report “Directgov 2010 and beyond: revolution not evolution” to me in October. The report places Directgov in the context of how Government should use the internet both to communicate and interact better with citizens and to deliver significant efficiency savings from making digital the default delivery channel for Government information and services.

I have written to Martha Lane Fox today thanking her for her report and saying that I am minded to accept her proposals in full, but that I will need to consult colleagues before making any final decisions about how to take them forward. I have placed Martha Lane Fox’s report and my response in the Library. Both documents are also available on the Cabinet Office website (www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk)

I expect quick and broad agreement on some of Martha Lane Fox’s proposals where we can make rapid progress and that in some areas—such as moving to a single domain for Government—I will have to work with Departments to test different approaches and work through the details and timescales. It is important to set a clear direction of travel and that is what I have done in my reply as the initial Government response to Martha Lane Fox’s proposals.

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of the winter supplementary estimate 2010-11, the Cabinet Office total departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £229,588,000 from £329,499,000 to £559,087,000.

The impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table:

£’000Main Estimate DELChangesWinter Supplementary Estimate New DELVoted Non-voted Total Voted Non-voted Total Voted Non-Voted Total Resource DEL 259,942 49,196 309,138 +105,452 +100,985 +206,437 365,394 150,181 515,575 Of which: Administration Budget 171,459 10,400 181,859 +53,858 - +53,858 225,317 10,400 235,717 Capital DEL 245,887 2,000 47,887 +23,250 - +23,250 69,137 2,000 71,137 Depreciation 1 -27,526 - -27,526 -99 - -99 -27,625 - -27,625 Total DEL 278,303 51,196 329,499 +128,603 +100,985 +229,588 406,906 152,181 559,087 AME 1 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.2 Capital DEL includes items treated as resource in estimates and accounts but which are treated as Capital DEL in budgets.

Summary of Changes in Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL)

The change in the resource element of DEL is an increase of £206.437 million which comprises £163.636 million for x3 Machinery of Government transfers from other Government Departments, £47.303 million of agreed claims on the Reserve, £4.290 million budget covers transfers to other Government Departments and a reduction of £0.900 million for dividends receivable from Buying Solutions and an increase of £0.688 million for purchase of goods and services relating to the Office of Government Commerce, both excluded from the Machinery of Government transfer.

The change in the capital element of DEL is an increase of £23.250 million which comprises £21.750 million Capital DEL End Year Flexibility drawdown and a claim on the Reserve for £1.500 million.

Changes in Resource DEL (RDEL)

The changes which result in a net increase in Resource DEL (RDEL) of £206,437,000 are as follows:

Agreed Claims on the Reserve £47,303,000

A Claim on the Reserve for Grassroots Grants increases Resource DEL, Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement by £18,000,000.

A Claim on the Reserve for v Match Funding increases Resource DEL, Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement by £8,828,000.

A Claim on the Reserve from the Modernisation Fund to cover estate rationalisation and early departures increases Resource DEL, Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement by £10,475,000.

A Claim on the Reserve from the Transition Fund to support civil society organisations in adapting to a changing funding environment increases Resource DEL, Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement by £10,000,000.

Machinery of Government Transfers £163,636,000

The transfer of Directgov from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to the Cabinet Office increases Resource DEL and Net Resource Requirement by £28,985,000 and Net Cash Requirement by £28,886,000.

The transfer of the Office of Government Commerce and its executive agency, Buying Solutions, from HM Treasury to the Cabinet Office increases Resource DEL and Net Cash Requirement by £20,657,000, increases Resource AME by £529,000 and increases Net Resource Requirement by £21,186,000.

The transfer of responsibility for political and constitutional reform from the Ministry of Justice to the Cabinet Office increases voted Resource DEL, Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement by £11,794,000. A transfer relating to the costs of the general election 2010 increases non-voted Resource DEL by £102,200,000.

Other changes outside Machinery of Government transfer £212,000

Dividends receivable from Buying Solutions of £900,000 and an increase of £688,000 for purchase of goods and services relating to the Office of Government Commerce. These adjustments are in addition to the Machinery of Government transfer. These changes decrease Resource DEL, Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement by £212,000.

Budget Cover Transfers to other Government Departments £4,290,000

A budgetary cover transfer from the Office for Civil Society to the Department for Communities and Local Government to cover the costs of the Government Office Network reduces Resource DEL, Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement by £290,000.

A budgetary cover transfer to the Security and Intelligence Agencies (SIA) for Information Assurance reduces Resource DEL, Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement by £4,000,000.

Transfer from non-voted to voted within Resource DEL

A switch within Resource DEL of £1,700,000 from non-voted to voted programme reflects savings made by executive NDPBs and reduces the Grant-in-Aid to eNDPBs and their non-voted expenditure and increases Office for Civil Society voted grants. The impact on Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement and Resource DEL is neutral.

Other neutral adjustments within Resource DEL

A switch within RDEL from administration to programme to cover costs of additional programme expenditure of £14,000,000.

A switch from Office for Civil Society resource grants to core Cabinet Office programme expenditure to re-profile the budget cuts reflected in the main estimate 2010-11 of £11,000,000.

Programme income has been reduced by £29,000,000 offset by a reduction in expenditure due to various programmes coming to an end.

An increase in administration income by £4,800,000 offset by administration expenditure on wages and salaries relating to the Office of Government Commerce; this adjustment is in addition to the Machinery of Government transfer.

A virement of £485,000 from independent offices—Civil Service Commissioners administration expenditure to the newly created executive non-departmental public body—Civil Service Commission—programme expenditure. The impact on Net Resource and Net Cash Requirement and Resource DEL is neutral. Non-Budget expenditure outside DEL has increased by £485,000.

A virement of £126,000 from independent offices—Civil Service Commissioners administration expenditure to core Cabinet Office. The impact on Net Resource Requirement, Net Cash Requirement and Resource DEL is neutral.

Changes in Capital DEL (COED

The changes which result in a net increase in Capital DEL (CDEL) of £23,250,000 are as follows:

End Year Flexibility / Claim on the Reserve

A drawdown to cover capital grants programmes run by the Office for Civil Society (OCS) increases Capital DEL and Net Cash Requirement by £21,750,000.

A drawdown on the Reserve from the Modernisation Fund to cover the costs of estate rationalisation increases Capital DEL and Net Cash Requirement by £1,500,000.

Neutral adjustment within Capital DEL

A switch within Capital DEL from Office for Civil Society capital grants to core Cabinet Office non-current assets to re-profile the budget cuts reflected in the main estimate 2010-11 has a neutral impact on Capital DEL and Net Cash Requirement, whereas Net Resource Requirement decreases by £2,500,000 and Net Voted Capital increases by the same amount.

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)]

Subject to Parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Communities and Local Government’s departmental expenditure limits for 2010-11 will change as follows:

Section 1: Main Programmes DEL

1. The Department for Communities and Local Government’s Main DEL will be decreased by £83,471,000 from £9,937,138,000 to £9,853,667,000 and the administration budget will be increased by £290,000 from £261,722,000 to £262,012,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

Subject to parliamentary approval, the Department for Culture Media and Sport’s departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £39,700,000 from £1,957,263,000 to £1,996,963,000 and the administration budget will increase by £7,200,000 from £44,288,000 to £51,488,000. Within the DEL change the impact on resource and capital are set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Dr Liam Fox)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Ministry of Defence departmental expenditure limits (DEL) will be increased by £102,744,000 (Voted and Non Voted) from £37,219,510,000 to £37,322,254,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on Resources and Capital are as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Education (DfE) departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £580,339,000 from £57,318,757,000 to £57,899,096,000; the administration cost budget will increase by £1,500,000 from £180,503,000 to £182,003,000. The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED) which has a separate Estimate and DEL, will remain at £190,196,000 with the administration cost budget remaining at £27,337,000. The Office of Qualifications and Examination Regulation (OFQUAL) which has a separate Estimate and DEL, will remain at £23,400,000.

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

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Chris Huhne)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Department of Energy and Climate Change departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will increase by £650,000 from £3,111,948,000 to £3,112,598,000.

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

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Richard Benyon)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be reduced by £218,000 (0.01%) from £2,417,291,000 to £2,417,073,000. The Administration Budget will be reduced by £662,000 (0.23%) from £282,750,000 to £282,088,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr William Hague)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £95,878,000 from £2,127,148,000 to £2,223,026,000. The administration budget will be increased by £64,250,000 from £420,448,000 to £484,698,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr Simon Burns)]

Subject to the necessary supplementary estimates, the Department of Health’s element of the departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will increase by £20,860,000 from £106,260,372,000 to £106,281,232,000 the Administration Cost Limit has increased by £4,201,000 from £211,079,000 to £215,280,000. The Food Standards Agency DEL decreases by £16,059,000 from £130,989,000 to £114,930,000. The Administration Cost Limit will reduce by £5,389,000 from £56,299,000 to £50,910,000. The overall DEL including the Food Standards Agency will increase by £4,801,000 from £106,391,361,000 to £106,396,162,000. The impact on resource and capital are set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for International Development’s departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be reduced by £74,465,000 from £7,618,569,000 to £7,544,104,000.

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

Serious Further Offence Review (Jon Venables)

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Kenneth Clarke)]

Following the recall to custody and subsequent conviction of Jon Venables for the possession of indecent images of children, I commissioned Sir David Omand GCB to undertake an independent review of the post-release period of the case, covering Jon Venables’ supervision from release on life licence in June 2001 until 24 February 2010, when he was recalled to custody.

The review has encompassed the general principles of a serious further offence (SFO) review but has also considered the wider lessons to be learnt for the future management of this and similar cases.

The terms of reference of the review were:

to review the supervision of the subject, from his release on life licence until his recall to custody, in order to establish whether he was effectively supervised, having regard to national standards and guidance and to the particular circumstances/challenges of his case;

in doing so, to consider the actions of his offender managers, their supervisors, the local police, the local MAPPA meetings and the role of the National Management Board; and

to establish whether everything was done which might reasonably have been expected of all agencies involved in supervising the subject to monitor his compliance with his licence conditions and to assess and manage any risk of harm which he presented.

Sir David Omand has completed the review and submitted his report to me.

I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses a copy of his report, which has been redacted in a few places to comply with the terms of the injunction amended in the High Court on 23 July 2010 (commonly known as the Butler-Sloss injunction), to take account of data protection and other confidentiality laws and to protect very sensitive operational policing information.

Sir David has concluded that Jon Venables was effectively and properly supervised at an appropriate level and frequency of contact, having regard to the particular circumstances of his case. Sir David also concludes that no reasonable supervisory regime would have been expected to detect his use of the computer to download indecent images.

I have accepted the review’s recommendations, which will be taken forward by officials in the National Offender Management Service. Officials will provide me with an update on the implementation of the recommendations in due course.

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr Owen Paterson)]

Subject to parliamentary approval the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) will be taking a 2010-11 winter supplementary estimate. The effect this will have is to decrease the NIO’s Total DEL (excluding depreciation) by £1,169,047,000 from £1,203,205,000 to £34,158,000.

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Scotland (Michael Moore)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimates, the departmental expenditure limit (DEL) for Scottish Government will be increased by £302,413,000 from £28,401,374,000 to £28,703,787,000. Within the total DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limits

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Work and Pensions Resource departmental expenditure limit will decrease by £35,781,000 to £8,730,218,000 and the Capital departmental expenditure limit will remain unchanged at £243,052,000. The Administration budget will decrease by £31,185,000 to £6,076,705,000.

Active at 60 (Community Agents)

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

Today, I am pleased to announce that the Government are providing £1 million to help older people keep active and make the most of their later lives. This money is available for local community groups or organisations within 30 selected areas¹ to bid for small grants of between £250 and £3,000.

Each local community group within the selected areas will recruit at least one Active at 60 Community Agent who will volunteer their time to help motivate, encourage and organise people within their own communities to become more active, physically, socially and mentally. Active at 60 Community Agents will be from the communities they are helping, and will have the flexibility to design innovative ways of encouraging and inspiring activity to help improve people’s later lives.

Through the Active at 60 Community Agent initiative those people who are more at risk of social isolation in their later lives will be supported in becoming more active, independent and positively engaged with society. Active at 60 Community Agents will help people within their communities:

take the first step in trying something new

understand the benefits they can get from being more active, engaged and contributing to their communities

build social contacts to help make being active part of their routine

This project is part of the Government’s ambition to build a big society in which power is transferred from Whitehall to local communities, and organisations and voluntary groups play a far greater role in their community.

¹ The following areas have been selected on the basis of level of deprivation and age structure, while ensuring a broad split across the English regions, encompassing both rural and urban areas:

Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Hackney, Sandwell, Kingston Upon Hull, Nottingham, Bournemouth, Southend-on-Sea, Brighton and Hove, Redcar and Cleveland, Wirral, Doncaster, Cornwall and The Isles of Scilly, East Sussex, Norfolk, Herefordshire, County of Lincolnshire, Enfield, Knowsley, Blackpool, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham, Salford, Hartlepool, Tower Hamlets, Wolverhampton, South Tyneside, Rochdale, Sunderland.

Work Capability Assessment

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chris Grayling)]

The Government are pleased to announce the publication of Professor Malcolm Harrington’s independent review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). This is a substantial and thorough review of the WCA which the Government fully endorse. Alongside the review, the Government are publishing their response which sets out how we will implement the review’s recommendations.

A central part of the Government’s plans to reform the welfare state involves action to tackle incapacity benefit dependency. More than 2.2 million people in Britain today are on incapacity benefits and many have been abandoned, with little or no contact from the welfare state for as long as a decade or more.

Through the WCA we seek to change this, and to try to find a better way forward for those people. From April 2011 we will put 1.6 million people, all of those on incapacity benefits who are not close to retirement, through an independent medical assessment, the WCA. Those found fit for work or with the potential to return to work will be given support to help them do so, those who are deemed unable to work will continue to receive full support.

We believe that the principles of the WCA are right but we are clear that the process of assessment must be fair and honest about people’s potential. We do not wish to see people who are genuinely unable to work put in a position where they are expected to do so.

Professor Harrington’s review sets out how we can refine the system and significantly improve the process so that it continues to be fit for purpose. We intend to implement these changes as quickly as possible. Many will be put in place in time for the first assessments from the national migration in April 2011.

We will continue to review the WCA and to make further changes where necessary. We have invited Professor Harrington to continue in his current role as independent reviewer for another year and to make further recommendations to us as appropriate.

Copies of both documents are available in the Vote Office.