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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether they should take direct control of the administration of Lancashire County Council by appointing a commissioner.

The Secretary of State uses his statutory powers of inspection under the 1999 Local Government Act extremely rarely, and has only appointed inspectors twice in the last five years, in Tower Hamlets and Rotherham. In both cases there were highly exceptional circumstances, with evidence from statutory inspections of widespread, systemic and extremely serious failures in those local authorities.

At present the Government has made no assessment of whether statutory action would be appropriate in Lancashire County Council.