Return of Funds to Consolidated Fund: Williamson Report (P.17/2009) and Social Security Increased Costs (P.83/2009)

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A decision made 14 November 2011:

Decision Reference: MD-TR-2011-0138
Decision Summary Title:	Return of P17/2009 and P83/2009 part (c) funding to the Consolidated Fund		Date of Decision Summary:	8th November 2011
Decision Summary Author:	Head of Decision Support		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title:	Return of P17/2009 and P83/2009 part (c) funding to the Consolidated Fund		Date of Written Report:	8th November 2011
Written Report Author:	Decision Support Officer		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: The return of the remaining funds for P17/2009 (“Williamson Report: Implementation Plan – Funding”) and P83/2009 (“Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005: Funding Requests Under Article 11(8)”) part (c) (“Increased Social Security costs as a result of the economic downturn”) currently held in Treasury and Resources Department (T&R) contingency funds, to the consolidated fund.
Decision(s): The Minister approved the return of the following sums to the consolidated fund: £384,290 - representing the remaining funds originally allocated by the States for the Williamson Report implementation plan; and £689,000 - representing the remaining funds originally allocated by the States for increased Social Security costs as a result of the economic downturn.
Reason(s) for Decision: This Ministerial Decision approves the return of previously approved funds back to the consolidated fund, which will require additional expenditure approval to reverse.
Resource Implications: The appropriate T&R contingency fund balances to decrease by £384,290 and £689,000 respectively, and the balance of the consolidated fund to increase by £1,073,290.
Action required: Head of Decision Support to inform the Head of Financial Performance Reporting that the budget transfers have been approved.
Signature:		Position: Senator P F C Ozouf, Minister for Treasury and Resources
Date Signed:		Date of Decision:

Return of Funds to Consolidated Fund: Williamson Report (P.17/2009) and Social Security Increased Costs (P.83/2009)

Treasury and Resources

Ministerial Decision Report

Return of P17/2009 and P83/2009 part (c) funding to the Consolidated Fund

Purpose of Report

To enable the Minister for Treasury and Resources to approve the return of £384,290 and £689,000 from the appropriate Treasury and Resources Department (T&R) contingency funds to the consolidated fund, in order to return the remaining funds originally allocated by the States for the Williamson Report implementation plan and increased Social Security costs as a result of the economic downturn.

Williamson Report Implementation Plan Funding

On 12th May 2009 P17/2009 was brought to the States under Article 11(8) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005, to permit the withdrawal of up to an additional £1.3 million from the consolidated fund in order to fund urgent service improvements to address critical elements of the Williamson Implementation Plan.

The States debate deviated from the original proposition, deciding that the £1.3m could only be utilised to fund 2 aspects of the original proposition:

a) Family X – for specialist, therapeutic and accommodation services; and

b) Brig-y-Don – to refurbish the Brig-y-Don children’s home and fund the costs of Brig-y-Don staff so as to transfer responsibility to H&SS.

During 2009, £315,710 costs were incurred by the Health and Social Services Department (H&SS) and drawn down from the relevant Treasury and Resources contingency fund to support 3 children (Family X) in UK placements (MD-TR-2010-0011 refers). The recurrent cost of funding these UK placements was added to the baseline budget of H&SS with effect from 1st January 2010.

In 2010, a sum of £600,000 was transferred to H&SS for the refurbishment of Brig-Y-Don (TR-2011-DD55 refers). Therefore the balance remaining within the relevant T&R contingency fund to date stands at £384,290.

3. Increased Social Security Costs as a Result of the Economic Downturn

In July 2009 the States Assembly approved P83/2009 of which part (c) allocated additional funding of up to £3.1 million for the Social Security Department to meet expected overspends on Income Support funding, staff costs as a result of the economic downturn and possible support for Supplementation.

As stipulated in the proposition, a subsequent report submitted by the Social Security Minister demonstrated that overall the department had incurred £3 million additional costs for income support, but had seen some underspends (especially for transition payments) which brought this down to a net overspend of £2.5 million. In P83/2009, an estimate of £2.3 million had been given by the department and therefore this full amount was requested.

The report also demonstrated that the department had incurred £111,000 of additional costs for staff to support the increase in work in the Workzone section of the department. The department did not request to draw down any funds for Supplementation.

Therefore, a sum of £2.411 million was allocated to the Social Security Department (MD-TR-2009-0206 refers) leaving a balance of £689,000.

4. Recommendation

The Minister for Treasury and Resources is recommended to approve the return of the following sums to the consolidated fund:

£384,290 - representing the remaining funds originally allocated by the States for the Williamson Report implementation plan; and

£689,000 - representing the remaining funds originally allocated by the States for increased Social Security costs as a result of the economic downturn.

5. Reason for Decision

This Ministerial Decision approves the return of previously approved funds back to the consolidated fund, which will require additional expenditure approval to reverse.

6. Resource Implications

The appropriate T&R contingency fund balances to decrease by £384,290 and £689,000 respectively, and the balance of the consolidated fund to increase by £1,073,290.

Report author : Decision Support Officer	Document date : 8th November 2011
Quality Assurance / Review : Head of Decision Support	File name and path: l:\treasury\sections\corporate finance\ministerial decisions\dss, wrs and sds\2011-0138 - return of t&r contingency funding to the consolidated fund - kh\wr - return of t&r contingency funding to the consolidated fund - kh.doc
MD Sponsor : Treasurer of the States