Luciana Berger
Main Page: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)Department Debates - View all Luciana Berger's debates with the Cabinet Office
(11 years, 4 months ago)
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The Deputy Prime Minister
As my hon. Friend will know, the first wave of city deals applied to the eight biggest cities. We then invited 20 cities and communities to submit bids for the next wave, on which we hope to decide in the coming months. I very much hope that the city deals will not be just a one-off experiment in devolution but that they will act as a template for further devolution across the country.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
The coalition agreement states that the Government will introduce
“extra support for people with disabilities who want to become MPs, councillors or other elected officials.”
Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on progress with that?
The Deputy Prime Minister
As the hon. Lady may know, there is a £2.6 million access to elected office fund, and the wider access to elected office strategy was launched in July last year to deliver on the coalition agreement commitment to provide extra support to tackle the obstacles she mentions. The fund will be open for applications until the end of March 2014, and so far there have been 11 applications, including from independent candidates.