Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing parish councils' staff with additional support.

Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the day to day running of their organisation and workforces. This includes parish and town councils. Government has no remit to intervene in the day-to-day affairs of local councils, except where specific provision has been made in legislation.

Parish councils are accountable for their actions to their electorate and must act within their statutory powers. Local people can hold councils to account, through the parish councils' own complaints processes.

Central government has no current plans to take any further legislative steps on this matter.