Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the announcement that government-appointed commissioners will be introduced to oversee parts of Liverpool City Council, what relationship they expect the commissioners will have with elected city councillors.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
On 24 March 2021, the Secretary of State announced his proposed intervention package for Liverpool City Council, which includes the appointment of Commissioners.
The Secretary of State’s intention is for the Council to continue to take decisions with support from Commissioners, with elected city councillors continuing their essential role of community leadership and engagement through representing the ward for which they are elected, decision-making and scrutiny. However, the Secretary of State is ‘minded to’ empower Commissioners to take decisions on the Council’s behalf if necessary. He is clear that Commissioners’ powers should be used only as a last resort if the Council fails to deliver the necessary changes, at the necessary speed
The Secretary of State has invited Liverpool City Council to make representations on his proposed intervention package by 24 May 2021. This timetable allows the Council, including the new Liverpool City Mayor and her cabinet, to respond to his proposals following the local elections that took place on 6 May 2021. The Secretary of State will carefully consider all the representations submitted to him and update the House on his decision in due course.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the inspection into the governance of Liverpool City Council, what assessment they have made of the need to strengthen the (1) audit, and (2) scrutiny, arrangements for local councils.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Secretary of State published the Best Value Inspection report into Liverpool City Council on 24 March. He will take a final decision on his proposed response, following consideration of any representations received from the Council, after 24 May.
The Government remains committed to strengthening the local audit system. Our 17 December response to the Redmond review sets out how the Department, in partnership with key organisations, will act to strengthen and support the local audit market.
The Department updated the statutory guidance for local and combined authorities on overview and scrutiny in May 2019. Effective scrutiny is vital to ensure that councils can be properly held to account for their decisions, and councils running executive arrangements must put in place overview and scrutiny committees to ensure this takes place.
As with all government policy, we keep the audit and scrutiny arrangements for local government under review.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Liverpool City Council: Best Value inspection report, published on 24 March, what plans they have to strengthen the audit arrangements in place for local authorities.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Government is committed to strengthening the local audit system so that taxpayers and service users are better able to hold councils to account. Our response to the Redmond review, published on 17 December, set out how the Department, in partnership with key organisations, will act to strengthen and support the local audit market.
Action we are taking includes, subject to consultation, enabling audit firms, councils and Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd (PSAA) to agree fees that more closely match the actual costs of audit, and working with key stakeholders to review the entry requirements for Key Audit Partners and how best to improve auditor training, to strike an appropriate balance between ensuring audit quality and market sustainability.
We have also temporarily extended the deadline for the publication of auditor opinions on local authorities’ accounts, and are providing £15 million to support affected local authorities to both meet the growing cost pressures in the audit market and deliver Sir Tony’s recommendations, to be distributed later in the spring.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the arrest of the Mayor of Liverpool in December 2020, what discussions they have had with local government officials about ensuring probity and confidence in the city's administration.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Further to my answer on 23 December - UIN HL11323, Max Caller CBE continues to undertake his inspection of Liverpool City Council’s compliance with regard to its Best Value Duty in relation to the authority’s planning, highways, regeneration and property management functions and the strength of associated audit and governance arrangements. The Secretary of State has asked Max Caller to report his findings by 31 March 2021.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what, if any, conditions they have in place to require local councils to have completed audits of their accounts in order to receive central government funding; and what assessment they have made of whether Liverpool City Council is compliant with any such conditions.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government does not require local authorities to complete audits of their accounts in order to receive central government funding. However, there may be other conditions attached to individual grants to ensure the funding is used for its intended purpose.
The Accounts and Audit regulations 2015 (SI 234/2015) require councils to submit their draft accounts for public inspection within certain deadlines and, once the public inspection period is completed to approve them. The regulations also require the final accounts to be published (currently by 30 November 2020) once signed off by the auditor as complete. If the authority is unable to publish the completed accounts within the specified deadline they are required to post a notice saying why they are not being published.
To help address the rising number of delayed audits and other concerns with the local audit framework, we commissioned Sir Tony Redmond to review arrangements supporting the effectiveness and quality of local authority financial reporting and external audit within the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. Sir Tony published the outcome of his Review on 8 September and I am pleased to report that we responded, accepting the majority of his recommendations on 17 December. The report can be accessed at the following (attached) link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-financial-reporting-and-external-audit-government-response-to-the-redmond-review
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Liverpool City Council about their process of awarding contracts to developers.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
It is a matter of public record that Merseyside Police have for many months been conducting an investigation which has resulted in a number of arrests made on suspicion of fraud, bribery, corruption and misconduct in public office, both in December 2019 and in September 2020. Further arrests were made on 4 December 2020 in connection with offences of bribery and witness intimidation. This investigation involves a significant connection to Liverpool City Council.
The Secretary of State met with Statutory Officers from Liverpool City Council at his request on Monday 7 December. He was given a range of assurances about the steps the council has taken to improve governance in the Council. Given the seriousness of the issues, the Secretary of State sought additional written assurances, including on any plans for further property disposals, and steps the authority has taken and proposes to take to secure effective governance. A copy of the letter that was sent to the council on Tuesday 8 December can be found (attached) here. Liverpool City Council submitted their response on Friday 11 December.
On 17 December the Secretary of State announced (attached) the appointment of?Max Caller CBE to carry out an inspection?of Liverpool City Council’s compliance with its Best Value Duty in relation to the authority’s planning, highways, regeneration and property management functions and the strength of associated audit and governance arrangements. The Secretary of State has asked Max Caller to report his findings by 31 March 2021.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of appointments of councillors who lack specialist knowledge being appointed to the boards of council-owned companies.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government is clear that councillors serving on company boards need particular skills, experience and training, as identified, for example, in the Public Interest Report issued by Nottingham City Council’s external auditors on 11 August 2020. This Public Interest Report followed the identification of serious issues associated with the council’s private energy company Robin Hood Energy.
On 17 December the Secretary of State published a response to the rapid non-statutory review into Nottingham City Council commissioned on 2 November. In his response, the Secretary of State acknowledged the review’s recommendation that the Department publish sector guidance on council-owned companies. This is being considered and an announcement will be made in due course.
Nottingham City Council's non-statutory review report and Secretary of State response can be found (attached) here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nottingham-city-council-rapid-review
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the financial reserves of each of (1) Belfast, (2) Birmingham, (3) Bristol, (4) Cardiff, (5) Glasgow, (6) Leeds, (7) Liverpool, (8) Manchester, (9) Newcastle, (10) Nottingham, and (11) Sheffield, local authorities; and what information they hold on such reserves in each case.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Department collects and publishes reserves data as part of annual data returns from local authorities in England. These figures can be found (attached) in the individual local authority data at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing, in table RA of budget data, and in table RS of outturn data. The latest published reserves figures from these local authorities are shown in the table.
Non-ringfenced reserves at 31 March 2020 of requested local authorities
| Other earmarked reserves (£m) | Unallocated reserves (£m) |
Birmingham | 463.8 | 133.0 |
Bristol | 80.6 | 17.0 |
Leeds | 66.7 | 31.5 |
Liverpool | 96.8 | 5.7 |
Manchester | 348.7 | 21.4 |
Newcastle-upon-Tyne | 87.7 | 10.1 |
Nottingham | 153.7 | 2.2 |
Sheffield | 252.1 | 13.2 |
Source: Provisional Revenue Outturn 2019-20 returns from local authorities in England to MHCLG
We also collect information on use of reserves in our Local Authority COVID-19 financial monitoring survey. The eighth round of the survey was live between 4th and 11th December.
The financial position of councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the relevant devolved administration.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the robustness of (1) checks and balances on, and (2) scrutiny of, directly-elected mayors in England.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
All principal and combined authorities that operate with a directly-elected mayor are required to have at least one overview and scrutiny committee to hold the executive to account. Combined authorities must also put in place an audit committee to provide additional challenge and, although it is not a statutory requirement, most principal authorities do the same. Overview and scrutiny committees have powers to investigate executives’ policies and their implementation, call in decisions that have been made but not yet implemented, issue reports and draw attention to shortcomings.
Overview and scrutiny arrangements are just one element of the wider accountability framework for local government. Other key elements include: independent audit, codes of conduct, complaints handling and whistleblowing procedures, statutory officers, and transparency of information and meetings. As with all government policy, we keep the accountability framework for local government under review.
Local authorities are independent of central government. Ministers have no remit to intervene in the day to day affairs of local authorities, except where specific provision has been made in legislation. However, this does not mean there is no accountability for local councils. Local authorities must act in accordance with legislation and are ultimately accountable through the ballot box for the decisions that they make.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many local authority planning applications have been called in by the Planning Inspectorate; (2) how many of these were overturned by the Planning Inspectorate; and (3) how many Planning Inspectorate decisions were overturned by Ministers in (a) 2016/17, (b) 2017/18, and (c) 2018/19.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Planning Inspectorate does not call in planning applications, this is done by Ministers. Ministers decide called in applications rather than the Planning Inspectorate, based on the recommendation of an independent Inspector.
The Planning Inspectorate publishes statistics on the number of cases called in by Ministers. Numbers of cases called in were as follows:
2016-17 - 17
2017-18 - 13
2018-19 - 8
The number of called in cases decided by Ministers where they disagreed with the planning Inspector's recommendation were
2016-17 - 3 (out of a total of 14 cases decided)
2017-18 - 2 (out of a total of 10 cases decided)
2018-19 - 1 (out of a total of 5 cases decided)