§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his statement of 12 February, Official Report, column1053, if he will give figures for the numbers of civil 142W servants who have been allocated to the special unit he has set up to make the necessary arrangement for charge capping; how many of them are full time with no other duties; what is its total estimated establishment cost; and if he will make a statement on the main principles by which it will perform its duties.
§ Mr. David HuntThe principles governing the charge capping of local authorities in Wales are set out in part VII of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, as amended by the Local Government Finance and Valuation Act 1991.
The number of staff required for the special unit will depend on the number of authorities setting budgets above my expenditure plans as approved by Parliament on 12 February. The bulk of the work of the unit will involve individual scrutiny of such budgets, to enable me to decide whether they place an unacceptable burden on charge payers.
Counties are required to set their budgets before 1 March, and districts before 11 March.