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HM Treasury

Yes. As I have set out, we are doing two things under the motion: we are replenishing the Contingencies Fund, which has been used for Bradford & Bingley and the Icelandic banks, and providing the resources for the banks' recapitalisation. I will give a little more detail about that in a moment. In the case of Bradford & Bingley and the Icelandic banks, we took action on the advice of the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority to secure stability in the financial system. The action that we have taken demonstrates clearly the Government's commitment to doing whatever is necessary to ensure stability, while protecting consumers and safeguarding the interests of the taxpayer. Sometimes, expenditure is so urgently required that it cannot wait for the voting of provision under the normal Supply procedure. That is why the Contingencies Fund was put in place. I hope that the House will agree that on the occasions when the Contingencies Fund has been used, it has clearly been appropriate to do so. The Contingencies Fund is limited by statute to 2 per cent. of the total amount released as cash from the Consolidated Fund in the previous year—that is, the total of all net cash requirements. On that basis, some £8.1 billion was available in the Contingencies Fund at the start of the financial year. The advances that we have drawn from that fund of £4.6 billion and £600 million leave the fund at a low level, in historical terms. That does not take account of any further call that Departments might need to make on the fund, as they sometimes do. In the normal course of events, the Treasury would present any winter supplementary estimate in the middle of November, alongside the supplementary estimates of other Departments. The passage of the related Appropriation Act would follow in December, with Royal Assent taking place in the middle of December. Only once all stages had been completed in both Houses would the advance be repaid to replenish the Contingencies Fund. This motion allows us to restore the level of the Contingencies Fund now, so that it stands ready to be used again if required. As the House knows, over the weekend we negotiated with the banking sector a £37 billion recapitalisation package. This supplementary estimate also provides the Treasury estimate for that spending. Clearly, at £8.1 billion, even the resources of the Contingencies Fund are insufficient for that package. We are taking this opportunity to ask Parliament's approval for that spending, rather than waiting for the normal supplementary process in December, because expenditure may well need to be incurred before the middle of December, when Royal Assent would be obtained. Finally, Her Majesty's Treasury is seeking a token £1,000 increase in resources to indicate the change to the Treasury's ambit. Elsewhere, we set out what the money can be spent on. That is perhaps the point that the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone) raised. It is a token amount. The remit has been expanded, as it needed to be to cover support to the financial sector of the kind that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor announced. It is normal, albeit perhaps slightly arcane, procedure to present token increases when ambits change in such a way. I commend the motion to the House.