In a session with the education and skills select committee in Westminster last Monday, Charles Clarke said the DfES had underspent by 'about 1.1bn' in the past year, though the total figure would be 'announced later this year'.
He said, 'In terms of dealing with a significant part of it, we committed an extra 450m for education and skills and an extra 436m for Sure Start activity. That which was announced with the departmental report dealt with 886m of the underspend, which was the case at that time.'
Mr Clarke pointed out that Government budgets are managed 'on a multi-year basis' and that 'the resource is committed'. He gave as an example the Learning and Skills Council, which he said was 'carrying forward 100m end-of-year funding into 2003/04 to cover previous commitments given to the employer training pilots', and added, 'That takes us up towards 1bn altogether.'
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