What are the virement rules?

Key controls for the schemes of virement are: (a) it is administered by the Head of Finance within guidelines set by the Full Council. Any variation from this scheme requires the approval of the Full Council; (b) the overall budget is agreed by the Cabinet and approved by the Full Council. Chief officers and their nominated Spending Control Officers are therefore authorised to incur expenditure in accordance with the estimates that make up the budget. The rules below cover virement; that is, switching resources within approved estimates or between budget headings. For the avoidance of doubt, a list of approved budget headings will be maintained by the Head of Finance;

G/COMMM/WILLETT/G 2005/SCHEME OF VIREMENT BUDGET AND POLICY FRAMEWORK RULES APPENDIX SCHEME OF VIREMENT Purpose of Scheme 1. The scheme of virement is intended to enable the Cabinet, Chief Officers and their staff to manage budgets with a degree of flexibili ty within the overall policy framework determined by the Full Council and, therefore, to optimise the use of resources. 2. The scheme of virement empowers the Portfolio Holder to manage the resources under his or her control and, therefore, to be accountable to the Cabinet and Full Council for their financial performance. Key Controls 3. Key controls for the schemes of virement are: (a) it is administered by the Head of Finance within guidelines set by the Full Council. Any variation from this scheme requires the approval of the Full Council; (b) the overall budget is agreed by the Cabinet and approved by the Full Council.

Virement is permitted only within and between Directly Incurred and Exceptions costs, at the appropriate percentage of FEC, with the exception of the equipment heading. For grants awarded from 1 April 2011 onwards, virement into or out of equipment is not permitted.

BUDGET AND POLICY FRAMEWORK RULES APPENDIX SCHEME OF VIREMENT Purpose of Scheme 1. The scheme of virement is intended to enable the Cabinet, Chief Officers and their staff to manage budgets with a degree of flexibili ty within the overall policy framework determined by the Full Council and, therefore, to optimise the use of resources. 2. The scheme of virement empowers the Portfolio Holder to manage the resources under his or her control and, therefore, to be accountable to the Cabinet and Full Council for their financial performance. Key Controls 3. Key controls for the schemes of virement are: (a) it is administered by the Head of Finance within guidelines set by the Full Council. Any variation from this scheme requires the approval of the Full Council; (b) the overall budget is agreed by the Cabinet and approved by the Full Council. Chief officers and their nominated Spending Control Officers are therefore authorised to incur expenditure in accordance with the estimates that make up the budget. The rules below cover virement; that is, switching resources within approved estimates or between budget headings. For the avoidance of doubt, a list of approved budget headings will be maintained by the Head of Finance;

G Rev: 2 G/COMMM/WILLETT/G 2005/SCHEME OF VIREMENT BUDGET AND POLICY FRAMEWORK RULES APPENDIX SCHEME OF VIREMENT Purpose of Scheme 1. The scheme of virement is intended to enable the Cabinet, Chief Officers and their staff to manage budgets with a degree of flexibili ty within the overall policy framework determined by the Full Council and, therefore, to optimise the use of resources. 2. The scheme of virement empowers the Portfolio Holder to manage the resources under his or her control and, therefore, to be accountable to the Cabinet and Full Council for their financial performance. Key Controls 3. Key controls for the schemes of virement are: (a) it is administered by the Head of Finance within guidelines set by the Full Council. Any variation from this scheme requires the approval of the Full Council; (b) the overall budget is agreed by the Cabinet and approved by the Full Council. Chief officers and their nominated Spending Control Officers are therefore authorised to incur expenditure in accordance with the estimates that make up the budget. The rules below cover virement; that is, switching resources within approved estimates or between budget headings. For the avoidance of doubt, a list of approved budget headings will be maintained by the Head of Finance; (c) virement does not create additional overall budget liability. Chief Officers are expected to exercise their discretion in managing their budgets responsibly and prudently. For example, they should ai m to avoid supporting recurring expenditure from one-off sources of savings or additional income, or creating future commitments, including full-year effects of decisions made part way through a year, for which they have not identified future resources. Chief Officers must plan ahead to fund such commitments from within their own budgets, so as to avoid the need for supplementary estimates.