Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reasons the report laid before Parliament explaining the effect of the Dorset (Structural Changes)(Modification of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007) Regulations 2018 does not explain the retrospective effect and impact of those Regulations nor set out that he did not consult Christchurch Borough Council in advance of making those Regulations.

Drafts of the Dorset (Structural Changes) (Modification of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007) Regulations 2018, which do not have retrospective effect, were shared and developed with the Chief Executives and Monitoring Officers of all nine Dorset councils.

Before the draft Regulations were laid before Parliament, formal consent to their being made was sought from the nine councils; all consented except Christchurch Borough Council, which in a letter of 21 March 2018 stated that they did not give consent to the making of the statutory instrument.