I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £1,441 be granted to make good an Excess on the Grant for National Gallery for the year ended 31st March, 1965.
The excess of expenditure over the gross Estimate here was £1,515 and there was a surplus of Appropriations-in-Aid which amounted to £74. Therefore, the net amount to be voted now on this Excess Vote is £1,441 and I should like to explain to the House that this excess was due mainly to unanticipated expenditure in connection with the Centenary Exhibition of the National Gallery held at the end of 1964. It was considered that this expenditure could be met from the grant-in-aid to the National Gallery and, therefore, a supplementary Estimate was not considered necessary. In fact, the surplus from the grant-in-aid on 31st March, 1965, was £2,705 15s 8d. The auditors, however, refused to sanction expenditure from the grant-in-aid for the purpose of the Centenary Exhibition and, accordingly, the sum of £1,441, the amount of the excess less the surplus of appropriations-in-aid, must be obtained by way of Excess Vote. This Excess Vote is, therefore, purely to meet an accounting position.
