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Departmental Expenditure Limits

Volume 506: debated on Tuesday 23 February 2010

My right hon. Friend the Attorney-General has made the following written ministerial statement:

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Attorney-General’s total DEL will be increased by £9,646,000 from £744,966,000 to £754,612,000. Within the total DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are set out in the following table:

£’000

Change

New DEL

Voted

Non-voted

Voted

Non-voted

Total

Resource DEL

6,478

1,419

736,333

12,317

748,650

of which:

Administration budget *

1,081

69,704

69,704

Near-cash in RDEL *

6,478

1,419

723,960

13,990

737,950

Capital DEL **

1,749

14,479

14,479

Less Depreciation ***

8,517

8,517

Total DEL

8,227

1,419

742,295

12,317

754,612

* The total of “Administration budget” and “'Near-cash in resource DEL” figures may well be greater than total resource DEL, due to the definitions overlapping.

** capital DEL includes items treated as resource in Estimates and accounts but which are treated as capital DEL in budgets.

*** Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from total DEL since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s element of the Attorney-General’s total DEL will be increased by £1,975,000 from £688,335,000 to £690,310,000.

The change in Resource DEL arises from:

The reclassification of contract costs of £6,419,000 from voted to non-voted DEL following the requirement to restate under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

The take up of Departmental Unallocated Provision of £5,000,000 from non-voted to voted DEL to increase the spending on the prosecution of criminal cases

A budgetary transfer of £500,000 from the Ministry of Justice to help fund the delivery of the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007

A budgetary transfer of £25,000 to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to contribute towards the implementation of the Skills Strategy for Government.

The change in capital DEL arises from the take up of £1,500,000 from end-year flexibility (EYF) to meet the up-front capital costs of the relocation of CPS Headquarters.

The Serious Fraud Office’s element of the Attorney-General’s total DEL will be increased by £6,590,000 from £40,932,000 to £47,522,000.

The change in Resource DEL arises from:

The take up of £1,138,000 of modernisation funding to complete the SFO’s transformation programme which is designed to help the SFO to meet its key challenges of:

increasingly sophisticated frauds and instances of corruption;

working more flexibly and efficiently;

focusing on the needs of victims; and

working collaboratively with other Government Departments, agencies and organisations as appropriate.

The take up of £4,952,000 in blockbuster funding relating to UN Oil for Food cases to enable the SFO to continue with the investigation and prosecution of outstanding cases in 2009-10.

The take up of £500,000 from EYF to deliver work early at a reduced cost.

There is also a transfer of £249,000 from resource to capital spending to cover increased National Fraud Authority capital costs

The HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor element of the Attorney-General’s total DEL will be increased by £1,081,000 from £15,699,000 to £16,780,000. This increase will occur within the administration budget which will increase from £13,630,000 to £14,711,000.

The change in Resource DEL arises from:

Take up £775,000 of near-cash administration costs resource end-year flexibility (EYF) to meet the cost of the Attorney-General’s office and to support the transformation of the Attorney-General’s Departments

Other changes in near-cash DEL spending of £306,000 to meet the increased charge to lease costs following the requirement to restate under IFRS accounting rules.