Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Business and Enterprise Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780215514547

The NDA is funded by a combination of commercial income and grant-in-aid. For 2007/08 its budget is set at £2,790 million; of this, £1,420 million was intended to be ring-fenced grant-in-aid and £1,370 million commercial income, chiefly from reprocessing but also including income from waste substitution. The National Audit Office report (HC238, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102951974) identified uncertainty as to whether the waste substitution income budgeted for would actually be forthcoming. There has been a shortfall in the NDA's budget and the large request for additional funding that resulted came at a very late stage in the financial year. The Committee believes the NDA's funding model is unsustainable, particularly in light of the volatile and declining nature of the NDA's commercial income. Public funding will almost certainly have to increase significantly, over and above the current plans. This has major implications for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) which already spends 40 per cent of its departmental expenditure limit on the NDA. A new system of funding is needed, as the Permanent Secretary of DBERR acknowledged, and work on this needs to begin urgently.