Tuesday 23rd November 2010

(14 years ago)

Written Statements
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Lord Benyon Portrait The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Richard Benyon)
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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:

£’000

Change

New DEL

Voted

Non-voted

Total

Voted

Non-voted

Total

Resource

12,345

-12,563

-218

3,707,615

-1,290,542

2,417,073

Of which:

Administration Budget

-662

-

-662

282,088

-

282,088

Capital

-17,763

17,763

-

123,127

424,587

547,714

Depreciation1

325

-325

-

-100,441

-109,235

-209,676

Total

-5,093

4,875

-218

3,730,301

-975,190

2,755,111

1Depreciation, 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 of -£218,000 arises from:

(i) a transfer of £1,850,000 administration to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the Papal visit; (ii) a transfer of £1,188,000 administration and £544,000 programme to DEFRA from the Food Standards Agency for the Machinery of Government Change reflecting a permanent transfer of function to DEFRA covering elements of food labelling and food composition policy; and (iii) a transfer of £100,000 programme to the Scottish Executive to fund Marine Protected Areas.

There has also been a transfer within the resource element of the DEL of £12,563,000 from non-voted to voted: (i) £9,447,000 relating to budget transfers from the core Department (voted) to the Department’s Non-Departmental Public Bodies (non-voted), mainly the Environment Agency, the Joint Nature and Conservation Committee and Natural England; and (ii) £22,010,000 relates to increases in income and expenditure for the Rural Development Programme for England. This change is DEL neutral, but the expenditure is classed as voted, whereas the income is classed as non-voted consolidated fund extra receipts.

There is no change in the depreciation budget. There has however been a transfer of £325,000 from voted to non-voted relating to a transfer of budget to the Marine Management Organisation.

There is no change in the capital element of the DEL. There has however been a transfer within the capital element of the DEL of £17,763,000 from voted to non-voted relating to budget transfers from the core Department (voted) to the Department's Non Departmental Public Bodies (non-voted), mainly the Environment Agency.