Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he or officials in his Department offered advice to Dorset councils on their legal power to submit proposals for single tier local government before proposals were submitted in February 2017; and under what legal authority his Department has expended resources considering those proposals.
Neither Ministers nor officials give legal advice to councils as to their powers.
With regard to his legal authority, the Secretary of State has statutory powers under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 and the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016, and inherent non-statutory powers to consider proposals made by local authorities.