Departmental Public Bodies

Mr. Hunt
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 1 July 2008, Official Report, column 880W, on Departmental non-departmental public bodies, how many times bodies for which his Department is responsible asked (a) his Department and (b) the Treasury to approve (i) capital projects of £6 million and above, (ii) gifts and non-statutory contingent liabilities of £100,000 and above, (iii) spending which exceeded limits set out in the relevant financial memoranda and (iv) spending which could have potentially set an expensive precedent, caused repercussions for others or which was novel or contentious in each of the last three years.

Andy Burnham
A survey of the last three financial years to date has indicated that my Department’s non-departmental public bodies made the following requests, which are set out in the following tables. This may not be a complete list, however further information can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                 |Spending which exceeded limits set out in the relevant financial memoranda|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2006-07          |3                                                                         |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2007-08          |2                                                                         |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|2008-09 (to date)|5                                                                         |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                                                                                                    |2006-07|2007-08|2008-091|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Capital projects of £6 million and above                                                                                            |5      |5      |4       |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Spending which exceeded limits set out in the relevant financial memoranda                                                          |0      |0      |1       |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Gifts and non-statutory contingent liabilities of £100,000 and above                                                                |0      |0      |0       |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Spending which could have potentially set an expensive precedent, caused repercussions for others or which was novel and contentious|21     |12     |24      |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|1 To date.                                                                                                                          |       |       |        |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------