Written Ministerial Statements

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

Monday 14 February 2011

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 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 increased by £2,876,008,000 from £20,801,811,000 to £23,677,819,000 and the administration budget will be increased by £2,826,000 from £323,487,000 to £326,313,000.

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

Government Actuary's Department: Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Government Actuary’s Department total DEL will be increased by £387,000 from £299,000 to £686,000. Within the total DEL change the impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table:

HM Revenue and Customs: Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of the supplementary estimate, the HM Revenue and Customs total DEL will be increased by £12,000,000 from £3,706,342,000 to £3,718,342,000. Within the total DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of the spring supplementary estimate, HM Treasury’s resource DEL will be increased by £14,148,000 from £180,063,000 to £200,231,000. The administration budget will be increased by £12,724,000 from £137,594,000 to £150,318,000. The impact on resources, including the administration budget is set out in the following table:

National Savings and Investments: Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, National Savings and Investments resource departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £3,942,000 to £172,344,000 and capital DEL will be increased by £1,000,000 to £1,464,000. Within DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are set out in the following table:

Social Investment Strategy

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

My hon. Friend the Minister responsible for civil society, the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, the hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd) and I are today publishing a strategy for social investment, “Growing the Social Investment Market”, which gives more detail on the role of the big society bank, alongside other measures to build the market. I am placing copies in the Libraries of both Houses and making it available on the Cabinet Office website.

Social entrepreneurs, and the social ventures they lead, bring innovative solutions to some of our most intractable social problems, by combining commitment to a clear social mission with financially sustainable business models. They are crucial to building a bigger, stronger society, as well as contributing to economic growth and employment. However, social entrepreneurs are often held back by a lack of access to investment finance, which means they find it difficult to get started, to expand their ventures and to achieve their full potential. This is particularly the case now that public spending is constrained and many organisations that may have previously relied on some grant funding to survive are having to cope with the difficult transition to a new financing landscape.

The Government therefore want to accelerate the development of the emerging social investment market, to increase the supply of capital available to social ventures. Our vision is for a market in which investors—from individual citizens to large institutions and charitable trusts and foundations—can choose to “invest for good” by putting their money into organisations that create positive social impact and a financial return. In the long term we want this to become the norm: a third pillar of funding alongside traditional giving and public service income.

The big society bank will play a crucial part in catalysing the development of this market, and some of its functions will be in place in April 2011. And we will now work with leading social investment experts to develop a proposal for the establishment of the big society bank as an independent private sector organisation, with its social mission “locked-in”. The bank will act as a wholesaler to build the market and leverage in new finance. It will operate in a transparent way, publishing annual accounts including details of the financial and social impact of its investments, and it will be financially self-sufficient—able, in time, to cover its operating costs and make investments in line with its core mission. The bank will also act as a champion for the social investment market, offering advice and assistance, and acting as a vital portal to connect social ventures with sources of investment.

Alongside establishing the big society bank, action being taken by Government—to open up public services to a wider range of providers; to empower communities to purchase and run local assets; to review the effectiveness of the current fiscal, regulatory and legal framework for social investment; and to provide financial and other support for social ventures to build their business capability—will help create the right conditions for the market to thrive and grow.

Government and the big society bank cannot achieve this alone. So the strategy also calls on others to play their part. Social ventures and other civil society organisations will need to be willing to explore new forms of financing, and prove that they have financially sustainable business models. Existing specialist intermediaries will have a critical role in developing their product ranges and support and will need to compete with new intermediaries entering the market. Charitable trusts and foundations are in a good position to free up a portion of their investment and endowment assets, which account for nearly £95 billion, for social investment. We look to mainstream financial institutions to dedicate resources to create new products, to build expertise and to leverage their distribution networks. And ultimately, we want individual citizens to start to see social investment as a core savings proposition.

Taken together this framework for action and the establishment of the big society bank will enable the great work being carried out by the innovative, committed people and organisations across the UK to have a major impact in building a better, stronger society.

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of the spring supplementary estimate 2010-11, the Cabinet Office total departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £17,630,000 from £559,087,000 to £576,717,000.

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

UK Statistics Authority: Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the UK Statistics Authority’s total departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £700,000 from £319,533,000 to £320,233,000, and the programme budget will be increased by £700,000¹.

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

Affordable Homes Programme

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

[The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)]

Further to my written statement of 9 December, Official Report, column 31WS, I am today announcing the publication of the framework for the Government’s affordable homes programme for 2011-15. This document is published jointly by my Department and the Homes and Communities Agency.

The affordable homes programme is designed to support the delivery of up to 150,000 new affordable homes through a mixture of new investment (some £4.5 billion over the next four years) and greater flexibility for social housing providers to make the best use of existing and future assets. The new affordable rent model, which will be the principal element of the programme, will make public subsidy go further while also enabling local authorities and providers to target support where it is most needed.

The framework document invites offers from providers who are interested in participating in the programme. The full document is available at www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/affordable-homes.

In parallel, my right hon. Friend the Minister with responsibility for decentralisation, the Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark) has today launched a consultation on a technical revision to annex B of planning policy statement 3 to make clear that affordable rent falls within the definition of affordable housing for planning purposes. The consultation document is available at www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/pps3annexconsultation.

In addition, to give providers more certainty over future income, I have today confirmed that the existing inflation-linked formula for annual rent increases in social rented housing will continue to apply throughout the 2011-15 period, as part of the Government’s rent restructuring policy.

Copies of both documents have been placed in the Library of the House.

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of the spring supplementary estimate, the Department for Communities and Local Government’s departmental expenditure limits, (DEL) 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 increased by £326,477,000 from £9,853,667,000 to £10,180,144,000 and the administration budget will be decreased by £2,100,000 from £262,012,000 to £259,912,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 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 £88,500,000 from £1,996,963,000 to £2,085,463,000. Within the DEL change the impact on resource and capital are set out in the following table:

Government Olympic Executive (Annual Report)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

[The Minister for Sport and the Olympics (Hugh Robertson)]

I am publishing today the Government Olympic Executive’s annual report—“GOE London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Annual Report February 2011”. This report explains the latest budget position as at 31 December 2010, and outlines the many wider economic, sporting and social legacy benefits to the UK.

The overall public sector funding package for the games remains at £9.298 billion following the spending review announcement on 20 October 2010. The funding package will, however, be reconfigured from April 2011 to make provisions for operational requirements, reflecting the changing focus of the programme from construction to operational delivery. Also from April 2011, Government funding for the programme—excluding security which sits with the Home Office and other Government Departments—will be held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games remain on time and within budget. The Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) anticipated final cost (AFC) now stands at £7.301 billion, which includes additional funding of £57 million for park operations.

Park operations are the additional responsibilities taken on by the ODA for the operation of the Olympic park and its venues and facilities between 2011 and the handover to legacy owners by 2014. On a like-for- like basis, excluding the park operations budget, the current AFC has increased by £12 million from that of 30 September 2010. The £12 million increase is a consequence of several movements across the programme including forecast savings on the Olympic stadium, security and logistics, offset by forecast increases for infrastructure such as utilities and landscaping. Around £0.5 billion of contingency remains available for programme-wide risks. A total of over £780 million in savings has been achieved by the ODA since November 2007.

The ODA continues to make strong progress in preparing the venues and infrastructure in the Olympic park, with 79 per cent of the programme to the 2012 games now completed. The Olympic stadium is structurally complete with the cable net roof covered, all 14 lighting towers in place and all spectator seats installed. The Aquatics Centre permanent structure and roof are in place, with the structures of the temporary seating stands for games-time spectators nearing completion. The Velodrome remains on target to be the first Olympic park sporting venue to be finished later this month. The structures of the handball and basketball arenas are now completed, with work progressing on the venues’ interiors. The structures of the international broadcast centre, main press centre and multi-storey car park are all complete. Recent milestones of the project include the completion of the first brand new venue, the Lee Valley White Water Centre at Broxboume and the official turning on of the Olympic stadium lights by the Prime Minister and Mayor of London. As of December 2010, over 12,000 people were working on the Olympic park and Olympic village.

In December 2010, the Government published a legacy plan, which sets out the legacy vision for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games and the detailed plans underpinning it. The Government are committed to making the most of the games for the whole of the UK. It has identified four areas to focus on: Harnessing the UK’s passion for sport to increase grassroots participation, particularly by young people, and to encourage the whole population to be more physically active; exploiting to the full the opportunities for economic growth offered by hosting the games; promoting community engagement and achieving participation across all groups in society through the games; and ensuring that the Olympic park can be developed after the games as one of the principal drivers of regeneration in East London.

I would like to commend this report to the members of both Houses and thank them for their continued interest in and support for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games.

Copies of the GOE annual report February 2011 are available online at: www.culture.gov.uk and will be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 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 £603,289,000 (voted and non-voted) from £37,322,254,000 to £37,925,543,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on Resources and Capital are as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 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 £752,963,000 from £57,899,096,000 to £58,652,059,000; the administration cost budget will decrease by £195,000 from £182,003,000 to £181,808,000. 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 also has a separate Estimate and DEL, will remain at £23,400,000.

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

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 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 £154,009,000 from £3,112,598,000 to £3,266,607,000.

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

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mrs Caroline Spelman)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs total departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £45,893,000 (1.67%) from £2,755,111,000 to £2,801,004,000. The administration budget will remain unchanged £282,088,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table:

Water Services Regulation Authority (Prior Period Adjustments)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Ofwat’s Prior Period Adjustments (PPA) following the Chief Secretary’s decision that departments will not be including PPA’s on the face on estimates for 2010-11 for the alteration of the IAS 35 standard and in respect of the removal of costs of capital charge from accounts, budgets and estimates are as follows:

Prior Period Adjustments

Non-Voted

Cost of capital charge

Costs of capital charges (CCC) have been removed from accounts, budgets and supply estimates in accordance with HM Treasury’s Consolidated Budgeting Guidance (CBG). However, the department had liabilities greater than its assets and so attracted a cost of capital credit. The removal of the CCC increases resources in DEL. The PPA in respect of the previous two years is shown in the table below.

Summary table

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 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 £75,228,000 from the £2,223,026,000 in the winter supplementary estimate to £2,298,254,000. The administration budget will be increased by £6,059,000 from the £484,698,000 in the winter supplementary estimate to £490,757,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 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 reduce by £789,000 from £106,281,232,000, to £106,280,443,000 the administration cost limit remains unchanged at £215,280,000. The Food Standards Agency DEL remains unchanged at £114,930,000. The administration cost limit remains unchanged at £50,910,000. The overall DEL including the Food Standards Agency will reduce by £789,000 from £106,396,162,000 to £106,395,373,000. The impact on resource and capital is set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Home Office’s departmental expenditure limits for 2010-11 will be reduced by £46,805,000 from £9,975,064,000 to £9,928,259,000 and the administration budget will be reduced by £2,722,000 from £392,510,000 to £389,788,000.

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

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 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 increased by £1,218,000 from £7,544,104,000 to £7,545,322,000.

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

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and The National Archives (TNA) and the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) total departmental expenditure Limit (DEL) will be increased as follows:

Total DEL for MOJ (request for resource 1, 2 and 3) is increased by £95,593,000 from £9,099,706,000 to £9,195,299,000 and the administration budget has increased by £61,577,000 from £416,230,000 to £477,807,000.

Total DEL for the TNA will be decreased by £155,000 from £39,272,000 to £39,117,000.

Total DEL for the UKSC will be increased by a token £1,000.

Within the total DEL change for MOJ (request for resource 1, 2 and 3), the impact on resource and capital are as set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of any supplementary estimate, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) total DEL will increase by £13,685,000 from £34,158,000 to £47,843,000.

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

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimates, the departmental expenditure limit (DEL) provision for the administration of the Scotland Office (including the office of the Advocate-General for Scotland) will be increased by £1,900,000 and this takes account of the take-up of resource DEL End Year Flexibility of £1,900,000.

Scotland Office spending is contained within the single Ministry of Justice departmental expenditure limit and administration costs limit.

The Scotland DEL will be decreased by £116,335,000 from £28,703,787,000 to £28,587,452,000. Within the total DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is set out in the following table:

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

[The Solicitor-General (Mr Edward Garnier)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Attorney-General’s total DEL will be increased by £1,000 from £697,852,000 to £697,853,000.



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

Blue Badge Reform Programme

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Norman Baker)]

I am today publishing the Government’s plans for reforming the Blue Badge (Disabled Parking) Scheme. The measures that I am announcing will help those who rely on Blue Badges for mobility reasons. The measures will tackle rising levels of fraud and abuse, and will ensure both that badges are issued more fairly and that the scheme remains sustainable in the long term for those who rely on it most. These reforms will be delivered as soon as possible, and many within a year.

The scheme helps over 2.5 million disabled people in England retain their independence, by enabling them to park close to jobs, services and facilities. However, very few changes have been made to the scheme since it was established in the 1970s. Having listened to the views of badge holders, the general public, disabled people’s groups and local authorities, it is evident that the scheme needs to be modernised to reduce current problems and deal with future challenges.

I want to ensure that the scheme focuses better on those whom it was intended to benefit. In particular, this means targeting those people who misuse and abuse it to the disadvantage of genuine badge holders. Secondly, this means ensuring that people have fair and equal access to the concession and the benefits it offers, regardless of where they live.

We are providing improved powers for local authorities to tackle abuse and fraud. This includes extending the grounds available to local authorities to refuse to issue and to withdraw badges and providing local authorities with a power to cancel badges that have been lost, stolen, have expired, or have been withdrawn for misuse. We are also providing local authority-authorised officers with an on-the-spot power to recover badges that have been cancelled or misused. We propose to amend existing legislation to clarify wrongful use of a badge and the powers to inspect badges.

To prevent abuse from happening in the first place and to deal with rising levels of fraud and abuse, we are implementing a new badge design that is harder to copy, forge and alter. Arrangements for printing, personalising and distributing the badge are also being changed and will enable more effective monitoring of cancelled, lost and stolen badges.

We are establishing, with local authorities, a common service delivery project which could deliver operational efficiency savings of up to £20 million per year, help to reduce and prevent abuse and improve customer services. The project will also make available an online application facility which should result in faster, more automatic renewals for people whose circumstances do not change between renewal periods.

In order to ensure that badges are issued more fairly and consistently across the country, we are amending legislation to require wider use of independent mobility assessments to determine eligibility, including where previously that assessment was carried out by a GP. To support this, we are providing local authorities with control of the current national health service spend on Blue Badge assessments. In addition, new good practice guidance will be issued to local authorities to help them make improvements in scheme administration and eligibility assessment.

We are extending eligibility for a badge to some other people, to address current anomalies and issues of fairness. Eligibility is being extended to more disabled children between the ages of two and three with specific medical conditions and we are providing continuous automatic entitlement to a badge to severely disabled service personnel and veterans. We also intend to remove residency requirements for disabled service personnel and their families who are posted overseas on UK bases. This will enable them to apply for a badge.

To help cover costs more appropriately and to enable the delivery of a new badge design and the common service improvement project, we are raising the maximum fee for a badge that local authorities can charge from the £2 that it has been for nearly 30 years, to £10. The average benefit for badge holders from having a badge (and not having to pay parking charges) is estimated to be £300 over the three years for which most badges are valid. In return, badge holders will benefit from less abuse, improved accessibility and better customer services.

I am also publishing today, a summary of responses to a public consultation on the scheme.

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Wales (Mrs Cheryl Gillan)]

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Welsh Assembly Government’s total departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £108,565,000 from £15,178,509,000 to £15,287,074,000.

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

Welfare to Work Contracts

Monday 14th February 2011 Written Statements

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

The Government have previously announced their plans for radical reforms of the welfare to work system, starting with the nationwide implementation of the Work programme by the summer of 2011.

Until the Work programme is implemented in June 2011, DWP’s top priority is to ensure that claimants are properly supported during the transition. I am therefore pleased to announce we intend to extend referrals to existing mainstream support for jobseekers (new deals and flexible new deal) until June 2011.

Jobseekers referred to existing contracts up to this point will receive a minimum 13 weeks provision and will subsequently be able to volunteer for early entry to the Work programme.

We will also be extending progress2work contracts, taking into consideration current performance when agreeing the extensions.

We will also be putting in place a new system of flexible and personalised support for ESA claimants to cover the interim period.

As current support is a patchwork of contracts, across different dates and contract areas, transition arrangements will inevitably need to be tailored to local circumstances. However, the contract extensions we are aiming to agree will mean nobody will be unsupported in the transition to the Work programme.

Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

Monday 14th February 2011 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 increase by £276,605,000 to £9,006,823,000 and the capital departmental expenditure limit will increase by £81,565,000 to £324,617,000. The administration budget will decrease by £233,105,000 to £5,843,600,000.