§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the full cost to her Department of correcting the calculation for the community care special transitional grant indicative allocations to individual local authorities; and what is her estimate of the cost to local authorities of adjusting their budgetary calculations in the light of these corrections.
§ Mr. YeoThe cost was minimal. It is routine practice to issue proposed allocations to allow authorities to check and, if they wish, to query the figures. In this case, a revised806W circular notifying authorities of their revised allocations was issued less than two weeks after the first. A further circular would in any event have had to be issued detailing the distribution of the additional allocation of £26.8 million for authorities' additional responsibilities for severely disabled people following the closure of the independent living fund. The revised circular was able to include this and therefore give full figures for the special transitional grant.