Indices of Deprivation (Hansard, 24 March 2003)

§ The Minister of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Lord Rooker)

I wish to inform the House 57WA that we will not be able to publish the updated Indices of Deprivation on the original timescale of July this year.

The Indices of Deprivation 2000 (ID 2000) combine statistical indicators on economic, social and housing issues into a single score for each ward in England. This enables all wards to be ranked relative to one another according to their level of deprivation. The indices are used by government and other agencies to identify areas where there are concentrations of deprived people. They are, for example, used in the allocation of substantial resources aimed at renewing deprived neighbourhoods. For all these reasons it is therefore important for the indices to remain a robust way of identifying the most deprived areas. They were last revised in 2000; more recent and detailed data have now become available and last year we began consulting across and outside government for views on how best to strengthen and update the ID 2000.

The two-stage consultation period began in November 2002 and was due to be completed by the spring to allow publication in July 2003. We received over 200 responses to the recently concluded consultation on the stage one report, with many useful suggestions, including confirmation of the need for data on crime to form part of the revised indices.

The timing has been affected by the lack of crime data to form this crime domain. The required data are unlikely to be available until later this year. Additional research is also needed on how to move away from using wards as the basic geography of the indices, to one based on geographic units that are more consistent over time and in terms of size. This will allow us to identify areas where very small pockets of deprivation exist and to track change over time. There is more work to do on other aspects such as take-up of means-tested benefits and affordability of housing.

To investigate these issues in full will involve additional research and analysis so we have decided to delay the second stage of the consultation. We hope to complete this during the autumn with a view to publishing the revised Indices of Deprivation in the winter.