Historical Child Abuse: Central Contingency Funding: Acceptance of budget transfer for costs associated with Committee of Inquiry to-date

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A decision made 27 January 2015:

Decision Reference: MD-ESC-2015-0002
Decision Summary Title:	Central Contingency funding request for Committee of Inquiry into Historical Child Abuse Departmental Costs		Date of Decision Summary:	26 November 2014
Decision Summary Author:	Finance Manager		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title:	Central Contingency funding request for Committee of Inquiry into Historical Child Abuse Departmental Costs		Date of Written Report:	26 November 2014
Written Report Author:	Finance Manager		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Central Contingency funding request in order to fund the costs incurred to date by the Education, Sport and Culture Department (ESC) associated with the Committee of Inquiry into Historical Child Abuse.
Decision(s): The Minister for Education, Sport and Culture agreed to accept a non-recurring budget transfer of £300,000 from Central Contingency as approved by the Council of Ministers on 30th July 2014 in order to fund the costs incurred to date by ESC associated with the Committee of Inquiry into Historical Child Abuse.
Reason(s) for Decision: Article 17(2) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 states that the Minister for Treasury and Resources is authorised to approve the transfer from contingency expenditure or the insurance fund of amounts not exceeding, in total, the amount available for contingency expenditure in a financial year. The Council of Ministers at its meeting on the 30th July 2014 concluded that it was content to agree an increase of funding into the Committee of Inquiry into Historical Child Abuse to £9million after consultation had been carried out with departmental accounting officers to identify the expected cost of the work to be undertaken in respect of the Inquiry and considered that it was appropriate for accounting officers to manage the expenditure in the manner agreed.
Resource Implications: Central Contingency will decrease by £300,000 in 2014 and the ESC revenue head of expenditure will increase by an identical amount. This decision does not change the total amount of expenditure approved by the States for the period of the current MTFP 2013 to 2015.
Action required: The Minister for ESC to request the approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources for this budget transfer.
Signature:		Position: Deputy Rod Bryans, Minister for Education, Sport and Culture
Date Signed:		Date of Decision: