Statement
My honourable friend the Minister for the Natural and Marine Environment, Wildlife and Rural Affairs (Huw Irranca-Davies) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs DEL will be reduced by £656,314,000 from £3,746,278,000 to £3,089,964,000 and the Administration Budget will be reduced by £45,880,000 from £356,463,000 to £310,583,000. These movements in the DEL Budget are mainly due to the machinery of government transfer to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. That apart, the overall effect on Defra's DEL Budget is minimal with the forecast outturn anticipated to run close to allocated budget. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
Change New DEL Voted Non-voted Voted Non-voted Total Resource -24,629 -207,707 4,050,855 -1,362,984 2,687,871 of which: Administration Budget -45,880 - 310,583 - 310,583 Near-cash in RDEL -40,518 -188,457 3,829,710 -1,446,278 2,383,432 Capital -405,780 -12,250 259,902 338,939 598,841 Depreciation* -8,748 2,800 -96,949 -99,799 -196,748 Total -439,157 -217,157 4,213,808 -1,123,844 3,089,964
*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 (i) a transfer of £45,846,000 administration spend from the Climate Change Group located in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC); (ii) a transfer of £34,000 administration spend to Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) for skills strategy; (iii) a transfer of £152,512,000 programme spend from the Climate Change Group located in Defra to DECC (iv) a transfer of £34,000,000 Non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision (DUP) to the DECC; (v) take up of End Year Flexibility for Investing in Communities Invest to Save Budget (ISB) of £56,000.
The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from (i) a transfer of £402,030,000 from the Climate Change Group located in Defra to DECC; (ii) a transfer of £16,000,000 Non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision (DUP) to DECC.
The change in the depreciation budget is due to (i) £3,102,000 transferring to DECC for the machinery of government transfer; (ii) a transfer of £12,050,000 non-cash costs from Natural England to Defra across non-cash categories; (iii) re-profiling of Forestry Commissions (FC) Budget of £3,000,000 across non-cash categories.