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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many responses they have received to their consultation on local welfare provision; and how they propose to ensure that all those responses are considered at the formative stage of decision-making in the light of the time period between the end of the consultation period and the Local Government Finance Settlement.

The Government received more than 5,000 responses to the consultation which are being considered, alongside the review by the Department for Work and Pensions into existing provision. The Government will make a decision based on this analysis in time for the provisional local government finance settlement in December 2014.