spend any money on VBPs is in September; the application
would not be formally passed until December 1989.
3.
There is, however, a mechanism for getting hold of
money before formal Parliamentary authority is granted whe
there
is a demonstrable need to move more quickly. This
process is known as applying for an advance from the
The request must be
Contingencies Reserve Fund!
Fund (CRF)
authorised by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and
must be announced in Parliament before any monies are
fore
spent by way of an inspired PQ. Because of the lack of
the more formal Parliamentary oversight the Treasury need
to be particularly careful in agreeing to advances in
Amongst other things they need to be satisfied funds
this way.
that the money will be needed before normal Parliamentary
no more funds are approval could be expected, and that the money, once advanced than
agreed will be spent
n
before that approval can be obtained in December,
Having said this, perhaps 4 We
aspects
should now look at the detail of the three facets of thre
VBPS to see what hoops we need to go through to ensure
that we get it right:
Expenditure on
(i)
Emergency Accommodation:
placed
You are aware that
the Treasury laid down a different
interpretation on the agreement reached between
the Foreign Secretary and the Chief Secretary
than we did at official level. At the moment,
they are only prepared to consider an advance
from the Contingencies Fund for the provision
of tents and the extension of the Whitehead
project, which covers expenditure of around