Question
The two local authorities that serve my constituency are due to be abolished next year as part of the first phase of local government reorganisation, and now we hear that Surrey is likely to have a mayor. Will the Minister confirm that the Government will let Surrey choose whether or not to have a mayor via a public consultation and a vote of councillors?
Answer
As with LGR, devolution is locally led, so it is for local areas to come to Government to say, “We have a broad agreement that we want to be in talks about devolution.” We then bring that into a programme and speak to the Treasury about financing that programme, which is where we got to yesterday, so this is great news for the 10 areas that are in scope. The next stage is a consultation, probably around December, and then local authorities will be taking local decisions to form the strategic authority, probably in February and March. Once they have done that, we will move the statutory instruments—the legislation—here in the House.
Verdict: AMBER (45/100)
The reply covers the second part of the question reasonably well: it describes a consultation and local authorities making decisions to form a strategic authority, though it gives timings only loosely and does not explicitly mention a councillor vote. It only partly answers the first part. It says devolution is locally led but never mentions a mayor or confirms whether Surrey would have a choice about having one. A member of the public would likely need to ask again on the mayoral question.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will the Government confirm that Surrey will be able to choose whether or not to have a mayor? | Partially Addressed | Hedged | The reply says devolution is locally led, which bears on whether Surrey can choose, but it never mentions a mayor or confirms that Surrey has a choice over whether to have one. |
| Will the Government confirm that this choice will be made through a public consultation and a vote of councillors? | Addressed | Direct | The reply names a consultation (probably around December) and local authorities taking local decisions to form the strategic authority (probably February and March), which matches the public consultation and councillor decision the question asks about, though it says "local decisions" rather than explicitly "a vote of councillors". |