Environment Food and Rural Affairs written statement – made at on 21 November 2006.
Barry Gardiner
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) (Biodiversity, Landscape and Rural Affairs)
Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs DEL will be increased by £12,368,000 from £3,484,561,000 to £3,496,929,000 and the administration budget will be increased by £294,000 from £285,164,000 to £285,458,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
| £'000s | |||||
| Change | New DEL | ||||
| Voted | Non- voted | Voted | Non- voted | Total | |
| Resource | -17,381 | -94,477 | 4,467,550 | -1,661,765 | 2,805,785 |
| of which: | |||||
| Administration Budget | 294 | - | 285,458 | - | 285,458 |
| Near-cash in RDEL | -17,381 | -94,477 | 4,332,354 | -1,821,793 | 2,510,561 |
| Capital | 25,226 | 99,000 | 691,726 | 204,500 | 896,226 |
| Depreciation* | - | - | -42,771 | -162,311 | -205,082 |
| Total | 7,845 | 4,523 | 5,116,505 | -1,619,576 | 3,496,929 |
| *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) transfer of responsibility for the Wine Standards Board to the Food Standards Agency, £415,000; (ii) a switch of £99,000,000 from programme resources to capital; (iii) a transfer to the Scottish Executive of £384,000 of programme resources for the bio-energy infrastructure scheme; (iv) a transfer to the Department for Constitutional Affairs of £170,000 of programme resources for the Cleaner Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005; (v) transfers to the Department for Communities and Local Government of £7,051,000 of programme resources for Government Offices funding; (vi) a transfer to the Department of Trade and Industry of £4,750,000 of programme resources for Energy Demand Reduction trials; (vii) a transfer to the Forestry Commission of £1,114,000 of programme resources for the Farm Woodland Premium Scheme; (viii) a transfer from the Cabinet Office of £294,000 for Parliamentary Counsel costs; (ix) take up of £250,000 of programme resources from HM Treasury for the StartHere initiative; (x) take up of £482,000 of programme resources from HM Treasury for Invest to Save Budget projects.
The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from (i) take up of £25,071,000 of capital through End Year Flexibility; (ii) a switch of £99,000,000 from programme resources to capital; (iii) take up of £155,000 of capital from HM Treasury for Invest to Save Budget projects.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
