§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many representations his Department has received from Eddisbury constituency residents about local government funding in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the arguments in those representations. [81265]
58W
§ Mr. MilibandThe Department has answered 88 letters in connection with the funding of schools in Cheshire over the last year. Six of these letters were from the hon. Member, but it is not possible to identify which Cheshire constituency the rest came from. In addition a number of Cheshire residents responded to the consultation on Local Government Funding reform which closed on 30 September: to identify precisely these letters from among the very large numbers of responses to the consultation would incur disproportionate cost.
We are carefully considering all responses to the consultation document and will publish an analysis by the time of the provisional settlement for 2003–04, when we will announce decisions on the new funding system.