My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (John Hutton) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

Spring Supplementary Estimates 2007-08

Expenditure Limits

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform’s DEL will be increased by £584,491,000 from £3,396,817,000 to £3,981,308,000 and the administration budget will be increased by £174,122,000 from £326,709,000 to £500,831,000.

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

* The total of the “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 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 arises from:

RfR1

machinery of government transfer of £810,000 non-voted expenditure from the Department for Communities and Local Government in respect of Northern Way;

transfer of £311,000 to Department of the Environment Northern Ireland for the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive;

transfer of £750,000 non-voted expenditure from the Ministry of Defence for Nirex;

virement of £363,000 from voted to non-voted expenditure in respect of the regional development agencies reflecting increased contributions from other government departments;

virement of £300,000 from voted to non-voted expenditure in respect of capital for Enterprise Ltd;

utilisation of £991,000 from the unused balance of the department's EYF entitlement in respect of non-voted expenditure of the regional development agencies;

utilisation of £256,159,000 from the unused balance of the department's EYF entitlement in respect of non-voted expenditure of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority;

reserve claim of £97,000,000 in respect of non-voted expenditure of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority;

utilisation of £4,400,000 from the unused balance of the department's EYF entitlement in respect of global threat reduction;

utilisation of £10,841,000 from the unused balance of the department's EYF entitlement in respect of British shipbuilders non cash;

utilisation of £1,357,000 from the unused balance of the department's EYF entitlement in respect of the renewable energy performance and innovation fund;

utilisation of £3,252,000 from the unused balance of the department's EYF entitlement in respect of sustainable development/the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive; and

machinery of government transfer of £152,000 to the Office for National Statistics in respect of construction statistics.

Also within the change to resource DEL above, the changes to the administration budget are (RfR1):

machinery of government transfer of £42,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government in respect of Northern Way;

transfer of £100,000 from the Treasury Solicitors in respect of European Division;

utilisation of £62,000,000 from the unused balance of the department's EYF entitlement in respect of onerous property lease noncash;

reserve claim of £122,000,000 in respect of onerous property lease noncash;

virement of £2,000,000 to programme in respect of energy demand reduction pilot;

virement of £1,700,000 to programme in respect of clean and sustainable energy;

virement of £5,200,000 to programme in respect of in-year restructuring costs;

Machinery of Government transfer of £1,120,000 to the Office for National Statistics in respect of construction statistics.

The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:

RfR1

machinery of government transfer of £25,000,000 non-voted expenditure from the Department for Communities and Local Government in respect of Northern Way;

virement of £2,364,000 from voted to non-voted expenditure in respect of the regional development agencies reflecting increased contributions from other government departments;

virement of £8,900,000 from voted expenditure on sustainable energy capital grants to fund a shortfall in non-voted launch investment CFER receipts;

virement of £15,000,000 from voted expenditure on sustainable energy capital grants to non-voted expenditure by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority;

virement of £32,000,000 from voted expenditure on regional selective assistance to non-voted expenditure by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority;

transfer of £1,628,000 to the Ministry of Justice for the ETS/ACAS caseflow project;

utilisation of £3,000,000 from the unused balance of the department's EYF entitlement in respect of non-voted expenditure of the regional development agencies.

Spring Supplementary Estimates 2007-08—Ofgem Written Statement

Expenditure Limits

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets’ DEL will be increased by £1,000 from £1,652,000 to £1,653,000 and the administration budget will be increased by £1,000 from £702,000 to £703,000.

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

* The total of the “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 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 arises from a token increase in administration costs to bring to Parliament’s attention a reclassification of Ofgem’s expenditure in connection with environmental programmes from RfR2 to RfR1.

This change better reflects Ofgem’s responsibilities for the administration of environmental programmes, and it is therefore no longer appropriate to treat it as a separate RfR.

There is no change in the capital element of the DEL.