Departmental Public Expenditure

Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his latest estimate is of his Department's capital expenditure in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10, (c) 2010-11 and (d) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Bradshaw
Information on the amounts of capital resources so far allocated to strategic health authorities, NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in 2008-09 have been placed in the Library.

Allocations for 2009-10 are based on financial plan returns from PCTs, NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts; the returns from the trust sector are still incomplete, meaning that comprehensive estimates are not yet available. The process is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks and information on allocations is then available on a quarterly basis. Allocations for 2010-11 are also in the process of being finalised.

The Government have not set Departments’ capital departmental expenditure limit (DEL) budgets for years beyond 2010-11. Capital DEL budgets for 2011-12 and beyond are a matter for the next spending review. The Government do, however, publish projections for PSNI (public sector net investment) over the forecast period at Budgets and pre-Budget reports.