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Local Government Modernisation

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) if he will place in the Library all (a) guidance and (b) other documentation

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(i) published and (ii) otherwise distributed by the local government modernisation team with respect to ethics in local government; [14545]

Mr. Byers: The purpose of the local government modernisation team is to help to communicate and explain to council members and employees the Government's agenda for the modernisation of local government, and to feed back council's views and experiences to Ministers and Departments.

The role of the members of the team is therefore to contribute their operational knowledge to guidance or other publications prepared by the Department. Examples include contributing to Government Guidance on New Council Constitutions and on Referendums under the Local Government Act 2000 and working with the Improvement and Development Agency in developing their ethical governance audit for local authorities. The remit of the local government modernisation team is primarily in relation to the modernisation of local government and not specifically on environmental issues.

Copies of such Government guidance and documentation are placed in the Library in the usual manner.

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what are the criteria by which members of the local government modernisation team were selected. [14554]

Mr. Byers: To ensure members of the local government modernisation team were recruited on an open basis, consistent with guidelines from the Civil Service Commissioners, advertisements for posts were placed in both the national and local government press. Applications were sought from people with:


A panel including civil servants from my Department and an independent member from the Local Government Association interviewed the applicants and decided the appointments to be made.

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions who are the members of the local government modernisation team; and what are their relevant (a) experience and (b) qualifications. [14550]

Mr. Byers: Current members of the local government modernisation team are:


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All members of the team have been recruited on the basis of ability, qualifications and suitability for the work as a result of an open competition held in line with guidelines set out by the Civil Service Commissioners.

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what is the cost of (a) the establishment of the local government modernisation team and (b) its continuing operating costs. [14555]

Mr. Byers: The local government modernisation team was set up with an annual budget of £1 million which included the cost of establishing the team in the autumn of 1999. This was increased to £1.5 million in 2000–01 to cover new roles, in particular local government on-line.

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what remuneration and superannuation is paid to members of the local government modernisation team. [14556]

Mr. Byers: Members of the local government modernisation team have been appointed on a mixture of short-term secondments or fixed-term contracts, usually of one to two years (full and part-time). Most members are senior civil service equivalents. Remuneration is based on salary before joining the team, and is currently in the range from £45,000 to £80,000 per annum. Members have the option of remaining in the local government pension scheme or joining the principle civil service pension scheme when they join the Department.

Bus Services

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what action he has taken to improve the quality of bus services with respect to (a) reliability of service and (b) the quality of information provided at bus stops since the publication of the bus quality indicators bulletin in September. [14546]

Mr. Byers: The Government want to see more regular and reliable bus services that will attract increasing numbers of passengers. Since the publication of the most recent bus quality indicators bulletin in September, we have commenced powers under the Transport Act 2000 with regard to statutory Quality Partnerships and Quality Contracts. This means that local authorities now have a wider range of powers at their disposal to help them to take steps to improve local bus services.

The Transport Act 2000 also requires all local transport authorities to develop arrangements for ensuring that appropriate bus passenger information is made available, and enables them to step in to provide proper passenger information, at operators' expense, if existing arrangements are inadequate.

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We are continuing to discuss with the bus industry realistic targets for delivering improvements in service reliability, including monitoring the provision of passenger information at bus stops.

Deprivation (Lancaster)

Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions which are the 12 most deprived wards in the Lancaster City district, with reference to the Index of Local Deprivation. [13767]

Ms Keeble: Table 1 lists the 12 most deprived wards in the Lancaster district, as measured on the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000. This is one of the main components of the Indices of Deprivation 2000, which is the current measure of deprivation in England.

Ward name(4)Rank of index of multiple deprivation across England
Alexandra280
Poulton759
Skerton Central795
Skerton East843
Bulk1,277
Harbour1,279
Skerton West1,290
Heysham North1,325
Heysham Central1,476
Heysham South2,113
Castle2,282
Victoria2,417

(4) These are based on ward boundaries as at 1998


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The components of the Indices of Deprivation 2000 are:

Separate indices at ward level on each of the six domains of deprivation: Income, Employment, Health Deprivation and Disability, Education Skills and Training, Housing and Geographical Access to Services. This allows all 8,414 wards in England to be ranked according to how deprived they are relative to other areas, for each domain.A ward level index that brings together information from the six domains of deprivation into one overall Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD 2000). Table 1 is based on this measure.

Six district level summaries of the IMD, which allow all 354 local authority districts to be ranked according to each measure. These summaries take account of the different patterns of deprivation found in different areas.

Table 2 shows how all Lancaster's wards are ranked according to the IMD and the six other ward domains included in the Indices of Deprivation 2000.

Ward NameIMD 2000IncomeEmploymentHealthEducationHousingAccess to Services
Alexandra2803821221841,3111,4306,526
Arkholme5,2566,2056,1186,2755,5536,229361
Bolton-le-Sands6,1226,9474,8354,2107,7247,2681,775
Bulk1,2771,5691,2809909861,7916,833
Carnforth4,2133,6404,2703,5253,4566,1013,993
Castle2,2822,0001,5941,9984,3832,8216,065
Caton4,2955,1363,4473,1605,8277,1071,524
Ellel4,4905,7874,6524,7367,7282,927592
Halton-with-Aughton5,7626,2514,3804,5777,0947,5251,717
Harbour1,2797559617533,7904,8285,702
Heysham Central1,4761,9198825912,2796,1455,784
Heysham North1,3259791,0041,1352,0883,1747,832
Heysham South2,1131,6101,8681,6703,3273,5475,452
Hornby5,8117,4405,9995,9486,7096,717380
John O'Gaunt6,0285,2674,2364,8765,1436,1027,700
Kellet4,7374,7983,6393,7486,9716,0712,240
Overton2,9243,7653,2472,6693,4081,4572,392
Parks4,3664,6902,5841,9736,6868,2296,412
Poulton7597253893773,8071,6867,881
Scotforth East6,2586,3766,1745,7154,5582,9934,789
Scotforth West3,7703,5012,7042,5084,5266,5515,744
Silverdale5,8496,0024,6933,9707,8768,0971,764
Skerton Central7958671,1278763361,4727,410
Skerton East8438158899394402,7157,460
Skerton West1,2901,3661,6441,8736361,3665,301
Slyne-with-Hest4,5616,1322,7682,1057,9397,2372,999
Torrisholme5,1564,8283,8702,6736,6907,9724,729
Victoria2,4171,5072,1381,6084,8964,2897,118
Warton3,9174,5024,2403,5832,7073,9462,835

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