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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to assess the effectiveness of R&D interventions included in the investment plan submitted to the Government for approval for Shared Prosperity Fund funding.

Lead local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales will be asked to report data to us to ensure that allocations are being spent to agreed timescales and milestones, including achievement of outputs and outcomes at the project level. We will also ask local authorities to report individual project outputs and outcomes at UK Parliament constituency level.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are developing a national approach to evaluation, including a scoping study in partnership with the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth. The national evaluation will evaluate the Fund through two related lenses: Fund-level process evaluation/s to demonstrate accountability and understand what worked well, what did not, and why, in the design and delivery of the Fund. Performance indicators from lead local authorities or project deliverers will contribute to the programme-level process evaluation. In addition, places may be required to cooperate with process evaluation activity undertaken by or on behalf of us.