§ Mr. HardyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will ensure that financial arrangements and support will enable each fire and civil defence authority to achieve and to maintain Home Office minimum standards in 1995–96; and if he will list those authorities which on present estimates are unlikely to meet that requirement.
§ Mr. Nicholas Baker[holding answer 27 February 1995]: It is for each fire and civil defence authority, in the light of the provisional criteria for council tax capping, to set a budget for 1995–96. The budget should allow it to comply with its statutory duties to provide fire cover. Where an authority is convinced that it cannot set a budget within the provisional capping limits, it can set a budget above the provisional cap and make a case to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment for those limits to be redetermined.