§ Mr. WatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the Local Government Commission's future programme of work; and if he will make a statement. [19550]
§ Mr. CurryThe Local Government Commission has today announced a programme for the next three years of periodic electoral reviews of district and county councils. We want the commission to give priority to those reviews which it has an independent duty to carry out, but we will direct it to carry out a small number of other reviews—of Southport in Merseyside and of the parish arrangements in four local authority areas: Milton Keynes, Hampshire, Surrey and the new unitary authority of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Depending on our decisions on the recommendations for unitary authorities, which the commission made in its report of December 1995, we may also direct it to carry out electoral reviews of those areas in time for elections in May 1997.