§ 37. Mr. BarnesTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what discussions he has had with local authorities concerning the east midlands pilot scheme, charterline.
§ Mr. David DavisOfficials have had discussions with representatives from all public services in the pilot area, including local authorities.
§ Mr. BarnesIs not the east midlands pilot scheme, charterline, costly and unused? It costs £400 to deal with a call, partly because only 10 calls are dealt with every four hours. Would not it be better if the resources were made available to the local authorities in the area, such as the North East Derbyshire council, where few phone calls are made to the charterline, which is 275th out of 295 councils in terms of resources per head made available by the Government? Is not it time to scrap that experiment?
§ Mr. DavisThe hon. Gentleman got one thing right in that little speech—it was an experiment or a pilot scheme. However, what he got wrong was that he added all the start-up costs to get the number that he reached. If I were in charge of the allocation of money to local authorities, I certainly would not give any more money to Derbyshire county council, which, at the previous count, according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, was owed £34 million in uncollected community charge. The interest on that alone would more than pay for charterline.