§ Mr. Butcherasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will list those functions currently performed by the West Midlands metropolitan county council which were previously carried out by the constituent borough and city councils within the county;
(2) if he will list those functions performed by the West Midlands metropolitan county council which have been introduced since the reform of local government, and which were not hitherto performed by the constituent city and borough councils.
§ Mr. KingThe main functions of metropolitan county councils are as follows:
- 1. Strategic planning.
- 2. National park and countryside functions.
- 3. Traffic and transportation functions.
- 4. Passenger transport authority.
- 5. Highways.
- 6. Caravan sites.
- 7. Housing—reserve powers.
- 8. Police.
- 9. Fire service.
- 10. Food and Drugs Act 1955—section 2.
- 11. Weights and measures.
- 12. Museums and art galleries.
- 13. Refuse disposal.
The area covered by the West Midlands metropolitan county council includes eight former county boroughs—two with city status—three municipal boroughs, one urban district, and parts of two rural districts. The allocations of functions were complex and varied as between the county boroughs, which performed all the functions allocated to local government, and the districts and municipal boroughs, which had only some of the functions—the rest being allocated to the county councils within which they were located up to 1974.
Broadly speaking, county boroughs had all the listed functions except those numbered 1, 4 and 7. These were the new functions allocated in 1974 to metropolitan county councils, which also assumed responsibility for the former "county" functions, numbered 2, 6, 8, 9 and 11 in the list. 216W Only functions 3, 5, 10, 12 and 13 of those listed were previously allocated to the municipal boroughs and urban and rural districts.
Since 1974 no substantial new functions have been given to metropolitan county councils, but the Local Government Planning and Land Act 1980 modified the division of responsibility between counties and districts in the planning field.
§ Mr. Butcherasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the numbers of people employed by the West Midlands metropolitan county council for each year since its formation.
§ Mr. KingThe numbers of people employed by the West Midlands metropolitan county council as published in returns of the joint manpower watch were as follows:
Full-time Part-time March 1979 4,552 618 March 1980 5,053 752 March 1981 4,988 *1,171 *Includes an unspecified number of staff transferred from metropolitan district councils.
In the earlier years, figures for individual authorities were not published and are not available centrally. Since the March 1981 return this council has declined to make its figures available for publication in the individual authority tables of the central returns.
§ Mr. Butcherasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what has been the total expenditure of the West Midlands metropolitan county council for each year since its formation.
§ Mr. KingFigures for the gross expenditure of individual authorities, excluding double counting resulting from expenditure flows between the different accounts, are not readily available. The following table shows, for the West Midlands metropolitan county council, net rate fund revenue expenditure met from rates, grants and balances, derived from returns made to my Department.
Net rate fund revenue expenditure met from rates, grants and balances* (outturn prices) £ million 1974–75 86 1975–76 119 1976–77 135 1977–78 141 1978–79 151 1979–80 188 1980–81 236 1981–82 (revised budget) 305 *There are slight definitional differences between years and in particular the revised budget figure is net of non-relevant specific grants.