Question
After more than two years, the Minister has come to the Chamber today to say that all options are still on the table. He cannot say what the timeline is for Cambridgeshire, yet he also said from the Dispatch Box that his priority is getting resources to the frontline. I am not surprised that the Secretary of State, who is in her place, has decided to duck making this statement and has passed it to the Minister, but will he answer the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam)? What has been the total cost to local authorities and the Government of this process so far, given that we have arrived at a situation today where all options are on the table?
Answer
The cost of transitioning from the two-tier system to new unitaries is covered by councils in their proposals. They tell us how they will finance the transitional arrangements that they are asking the Government to consider. For the first time—Government have not done this before—we have introduced a multimillion-pound budget, £900,000 per new unitary, to support the transitional arrangements on top of that, so I do not believe that the way in which the right hon. Gentleman has framed his question reflects the reality. The Government are meeting the councils halfway.17% vibes
Verdict: AMBER (30/100)
The reply only partly answers the question. It gives concrete Government funding figures, including a multimillion-pound transitional budget and £900,000 per new unitary authority, but never states the total Government cost incurred so far. On local authorities' costs, it says councils will cover transition costs and explain how they will finance them, without giving any total, and it does not clearly answer the question as asked because it disputes how the question was framed. The person who asked would likely need to follow up to get the specific totals.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will the Minister answer the question asked by the hon. Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam)? | Partially Addressed | Hedged | The item asks whether the Minister will answer the Member's question. The reply does not directly answer it but instead disputes how the question was framed, and only the surrounding cost statements (1-3) touch on what was presumably asked, so the answer is incomplete and deflective. |
| What is the total cost to local authorities of this process so far? | Partially Addressed | Generic | The item asks for the total cost to local authorities so far, but the reply only asserts that councils cover transition costs in their proposals and will explain how they finance them, giving no total or any figure for costs incurred to date, and it does not say such a figure is unavailable. |
| What is the total cost to the Government of this process so far? | Partially Addressed | Direct | The reply gives concrete Government funding information (a multimillion-pound transitional budget and £900,000 per new unitary), which is relevant, but it never states the total Government cost incurred so far, so the item is only partly answered. |