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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the timetable is for the Government's publication of draft secondary legislation on local government reorganisation in Dorset; and what account the Government is taking of the consequences for that timetable of the timing of the hearing on 30 July 2018 of the judicial review application being brought by Christchurch Borough Council on local government reorganisation in Dorset.

We are currently in discussion with representatives of the Dorset councils about the content of secondary legislation to support implementation of the local government reorganisation on 1 April 2019 for which Parliament has legislated, and intend to lay the necessary secondary legislation as soon as practicable.