The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Shaun Woodward) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
Subject to parliamentary approval, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) will be taking a 2007-08 winter supplementary estimate. The effect will be to increase the NIO’s DEL by £190,138,000 from £1,163,537,000 to £1,353,675,000.
£'000 Voted Non- Voted Voted Non- voted Total Resource 65,069 136,855 368,289 974,639 1,342,928 Admin budget 8,045 -5,000 81,869 - 81,869 Near-cash 63,120 5,874 304,181 713,406 1,017,587 Capital -11,972 11,962 25,094 46,809 71,903 Depreciation 3,558 -15,334 -17,275 -43,881 -61,156 Total 56,655 133,483 376,108 977,567 1,353,675
The change in total DEL of £190,138,000 relates primarily to the drawdown of end-year flexibility of £172,500,000, of which £69,500,000 is near-cash resource and £103,000,000 is non-cash. There is an increase of £30,000,000 in respect of a change in the discount rate for police pensions; a resource budget transfer of £165,000 from the Cabinet Office, and a machinery of government change of £751,000 to transfer responsibility for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals Panel to the Northern Ireland Court Service.
The cash drawdown is in relation to the additional resource requirement for various business areas within the department, such as political inquiries, Public Prosecution Service, NIPS, YJA, criminal justice, Bloody Sunday inquiry, PSNI, Probation Board and Policing Board. The non-cash element is required for Public Prosecution Service, Compensation Agency, Youth Justice Agency and PSNI.
The administration budget increases by £3,045,000 from £78,824,000 to £81,869,000 as a result of the take-up of end-year flexibility and the resource budget transfer from the Cabinet Office.
The reduction in capital DEL of £10,000 is the machinery of government transfer of responsibility for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals Panel to the Northern Ireland Court Service.