Departmental Expenditure Limit (2010-11)

The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mrs Theresa Villiers)
Subject to parliamentary approval, the Office of Rail Regulation departmental expenditure limit (DEL) and annually managed expenditure (AME) will be increased as follows:

DEL: £792,000

AME: £243,000

The impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

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|                     |Change|NEW DEL  |
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|                     |Voted |Non-voted|Voted|Non-voted|Total|
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|Resource             |242   |550      |2|550|552|
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|Of which             |      |         ||||
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|Administration budget|242   |-        |2|-|2|
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|Capital              |(450) |-        |350|-|350|
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|Depreciation         |150   |-        |(750)|-|(750)|
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|Total                |(58)  |550      |(398)|550|152|
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The change in the resource element of DEL arises because ORR is unable to record more income than cost from the industry. £242,000 budget cover is required so that ORR can reduce the recorded negative DEL to a token vote of £2,000.

The spring supplementary also reflects ORR’s cash payment £550,000 towards releasing provisions for early departures in 2010-11. ORR does not require cash to make these payments but needs to reflect the cost in non-voted DEL so that ORR does not exceed its overall DEL limit for 2010-11.

ORR needs to increase its provision due to staff changes that will take place. The spring supplementary shows a further £243,000 (non-cash) being added to a provision initially created in the main estimate. These AME costs will be recovered from the rail industry.

These changes are of a technical nature to ensure that ORR keeps within its DEL and AME limits. ORR is funded by the railway industry and anticipates an underspend against its gross budget of circa £2,000,000 this year.