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Local Government Finance (Social Index)

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what account is taken of the social index in determining the Government's allocation of funding to local authorities. [14503]

Sir Paul Beresford: The social index is one of the indicators used to allocate the sub-block of the all other services standard spending assessment for services provided predominantly by non-metropolitan district

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councils in non-metropolitan areas. A similar index is used to allocate the other social services sub-block of the personal social services standard spending assessment.

Mr. Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the impact of the social index on the allocation of funding to (a) Harrow, (b) Bournemouth, (c) Richmond and (d) Merseyside. [14504]

Sir Paul Beresford: The social index is one of the indicators used in two elements of the standard spending assessments: other personal social services; and other services. The amounts allocated by each of the components of these formulae are given in the table.

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Other personal social services£ per head

	Population aged 18-64	Other social services index	Morbidity	Area cost	Other PSS total SSA
Harrow	19	4	8	3	34
Bournemouth	18	3	10	0	31
Richmond	20	1	7	3	31
Knowsley	18	-1	17	0	34
Liverpool	19	-1	17	0	34
Sefton	18	-4	12	0	26
St. Helens	19	-5	15	0	29
Wirral	18	-3	12	0	27

District level all other services£ per head

	Enhanced population	Population density	Social index	Economic index	Population sparsity	Area cost	District services total SSA
Harrow	74	22	7	-6	0	11	109
Bournemouth	81	19	5	2	0	0	109
Richmond	76	25	1	-7	1	10	106
Knowsley	77	22	-1	23	2	0	124
Liverpool	80	31	-1	24	0	0	135
Sefton	77	20	-7	4	1	0	95
St. Helens	76	18	-7	6	2	0	94
Wirral	75	20	-5	7	1	0	98

Rows may not sum to totals due to rounding

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Local Government Finance

Mr. Spearing: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, in respect of the assumed level and costs of capital expenditure referred to in paragraphs 4.59 to 4.61 of the "Local Government Finance Report (Surplus) 1997-98", HC 203 of 1996-97, he will state the mathematical basis used in respect of the assumed amounts referred to in each paragraph. [14591]

Sir Paul Beresford: The basis for calculating assumed outstanding debt at 1 April 1990 was set out in appendix 1 to annex VII of "Standard Spending Assessments: Background and Underlying Methodology", published by the Department of the Environment in 1990. A copy of this document was made available in the Library.

A description of the basic and supplementary credit approval data used in calculating standard spending assessments is given on pages 64 and 65 of "The Local Government Finance Report (England) 1997-98" (HC203). Pages 63 and 64 of the report describe how credit approval information for years prior to 1997-98 has been used to derive the estimate of assumed outstanding debt at 1 April 1997. Further information is given in "Standard Spending Assessments: Specification of Indicators for 1997-98", a copy of which is in the Library.

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The formula for calculating the assumed cost of financing capital expenditure is set out in paragraph 4.64 of "The Local Government Finance Report (England) 1997-98". The interest rate used in the calculation is defined on page 64 of the report.

Additional information on the calculation of the SSA element for capital financing, including a sample calculation, was provided in chapter 8 of "Standard Spending Assessments: Guide to Methodology 1996-97", published by the Department of the Environment in 1996. A copy of this document is in the Library.

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the link between decreasing population and relative local economic decline; and what account is taken of that link in the standard spending assessment forumla. [14506]

Sir Paul Beresford: I have not made any recent assessment of the link between decreasing population and relative local economic decline. There is no explicit indicator of such an effect in the standard spending assessment formulae. However, the formulae include the population of the local authority and indicators of economic deprivation, which might reflect any such an effect.

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Children's Services

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proposals he has to implement the recommendations of the York university study into ethnicity and the cost of children's services. [14501]

Sir Paul Beresford: The Department of Health plans to take forward York university's work on the standard spending assessment for children's social services during 1997.

Mr. Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what recognition is made in the Government's allocation of funding to local authorities of the provision by some authorities of universal nursery education; and if he will make a statement. [14505]

Sir Paul Beresford: The element of the standard spending assessment related to the education of under-fives is based on the resident population aged 0 to four an indicator of additional educational needs, adjustments for variations in cost and boundary changes, and a deduction related to the number of four-year-olds in local authority provision in a recent year. The SSA formulae are the subject of discussions each year with representatives of local government.

Mr. Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what research he has commissioned into the effect of the area cost adjustment on social service provision for (a) children and (b) the elderly; what conclusions were reached in such research; and what proposals he has for changes as a result of that research.[14507]

Sir Paul Beresford: I commissioned an independent review of the area cost adjustment element of standard spending assessment during 1996. It proposed a new method of calculating area cost adjustments which could be used for all local authority services. The review's proposals were not implemented for 1997-98 SSAs. Further work to consider the concerns that remain about the area cost adjustment will be carried out during 1997.

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his oral statement of 3 February, Official Report, column 677, what assumptions underlay his provision of a 3.6 per cent. increase in education spending. [14793]

Sir Paul Beresford: In deciding each year on appropriate levels of total standard spending in each of the main service blocks--including education--we take into account the spending pressures facing local authorities as well as the scope for efficiency savings and what the country as a whole can afford. We discuss these spending pressures with representatives from local government. Local spending decisions, however, are entirely a matter for individual local authorities which have considerable freedom to decide on their own priorities in the light of local circumstances.

E. coli

Mr. Alex Carlile: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the incidence of E. coli in drinking water supplies in England and Wales during the latest three years for which information is available; what research has been carried out to isolate the E. coli strain

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which caused the recent deaths in Scotland; what assessment he has made of whether the E. coli strain in Scotland is the same as that found in water supplies; and if he will make a statement. [14592]

Mr. Clappison: There are various strains or serogroups of Escherichia coli--E. coli--bacteria, most of which are unlikely to cause infection in humans. A variety of E. coli strains are present in the faeces of almost all human beings and warm-blooded animals but the incidence of the strain associated with the recent deaths in Scotland--known as 0157--is rare although it has been isolated from cattle in the UK. E. coli in general are used as indicator organisms in checking that drinking water is free from contamination.

Water quality regulations require water companies to test for a group of bacteria known as faecal coliforms which include E. coli. The majority of faecal coliforms reported by water companies will be E. coli but there is no requirement to test specifically for this organism. Whenever faecal coliform bacteria are detected in water supplies, precautionary action is taken, usually through the issue of an advice to boil water notice. The figures for the number of times that faecal coliform bacteria have been found in compliance samples taken in water supply zones in England and Wales is as follows:

	1993	1994	1995
Number of tests	164,241	159,896	156,306
Percentage in which faecal coliforms detected	0.1	<0.1	<0.1

The drinking water inspectorate has promoted research to ensure that an effective method of detecting E. coli 0157 in water is available.

All public drinking water supplies in England and Wales are disinfected at the water treatment works and all strains of E. coli are destroyed by adequate disinfection. The drinking water inspectorate checks on a sample basis that adequate disinfection is in place and investigates any disinfection failures.

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