EYF INFORMATION

  A.  The breakdown of the EYF stock has been completed as requested. Amendments to the spreadsheet you provided, as attached, include an adjustment to the 2004-05 outturn figure and provisional 2005-06 figures. These figures are in line with the projected outturn for 2005-06 reported as at December 2005.

  B.  The forecast application of EYF in 2005-06 is £1,466k. As planned this usage of EYF will meet Capital Grant spend. It should be noted that Capital Grant spend also uses a large transfer of funds from ESRC's capital allocation, as previously agreed with OST. Within the overall balance of funds management, the use of EYF does not require additional drawdown of cash, and will be reflected in accrued expenditure at year end.

  C.  The Resource Allocation and Forecast return for December 2005 is also enclosed. This return indicates an underspend against budget for the year of £968k, and a reduced utilisation of EYF in the year from £2,374k to the £1,466k referred to in B above. The forecast underspend is due to an unexpected level of slippage of strategic research investments into later years. There is also some slippage in expenditure on postgraduate training.

  The separate variances in the forecast Resource and Capital figures within the OST Report represent a virement of £2,650k from Capital to Capital Grants. The balance is represented by the forecast underspend for the year against budget of £968k, referred to above.

  D.  Not applicable to ESRC.

  E.  2004-05 is the first year that an EYF figure for Resource Non Cash was shown as a separate item and the figure of £510k represents an accumulated position since 2001-02. The figure at the end of 2004-05 is higher than anticipated as implementation and subsequent capitalisation of the Information Centre was delayed, resulting in a reduced level of depreciation charged to 2004-05.

  F.  Not applicable to ESRC.