MEMORANDUM
FROM PAUL
GOODMAN MP
Thank you for your letter of 1 April about the
Public Administration Select Committee's inquiry into official
language.
I attach a copy of a letter that the Speaker
received from Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, in answer
to persistent queries that I'd raised in correspondence and on
the floor of the House about how exactly this year's allocation
of £12 million of Preventing Violence Extremism money is
being spent. You'll see that the third paragraph of the Secretary
of State's letter appears to say that the department has no record,
but is now compiling one.
I offer her letter to the select committee as
a particularly bad example of official language—though it
was an example, presumably, from the point of view of Sir Humphrey.
April 2009
APPENDIX
LETTER FROM RT HON HAZEL BLEARS MP TO SPEAKER
OF THE HOUSE, MARCH 2009
I wanted to write to you to follow up the point
of order raised by Paul Goodman on 11 March, concerning responses
to the correspondence about funding to prevent violent extremism.
Paul Goodman wrote to me on 15 January noting
that we had previously provided him with information about the
Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder Fund in Spring 2008 and
asking for corresponding details for the current period. I replied
on 3 March, noting that the Pathfinder Fund had existed in 2007-08
and that funding was now provided through the Area Based Grant—a
non ring-fenced grant fund which allows local authorities to decide
the most effective and efficient routes to invest their resources
for the delivery of local priorities. Copies of the correspondence
and relevant PQs are enclosed.[1]
Because of this change it is not possible for
me to provide a list of funded projects in precisely the same
format as in Spring 2008. However, we have been working closely
with Government Offices, the Office for Security and Counter-terrorism
and with our local partners to deliver this agenda and to collate
information setting out progress on the development of local partnerships
and action plans. This includes information on engagement, including
detail about which community groups are funded for leading local
projects.
I am, of course, content to share the information
set out above. I believe it would make sense to do so after the
end of the financial year and will therefore write to him around
the end of April providing this detail. I hope he finds this helpful.
I am also happy to build on the briefing he
received from Sadiq Khan MP and officials recently, which touched
on this issue, by meeting him again to provide further explanation
of the local government finance system and the local government
performance framework.
A copy of this letter goes to Paul Goodman MP
and the Leader of the House of Commons.
1 Not printed. Back
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