HC Deb 31 January 1973 vol 849 cc398-9W
41. Mr. David Price

asked the Minister for the Civil Service if he will list by reference to the new counties of England the standard regions of England as currently used by the home Departments and where any Departments use different geography to identify the differences.

Mr. Kenneth Baker

The regions most commonly used for regional planning and development purposes and to which regional statistics generally relate are the economic planning regions. I will circulate the details in the OFFICIAL REPORT by reference to the new counties. Apart from these, departments use other boundaries drawn by reference to their own administrative and operational requirements. There are a large number of variants. The information is as follows:

Northern

Northumberland, Cumbria (part), Tyne and Wear, Durham, Cleveland and North Yorkshire (part).

North West

Cumbria (part), Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Derbyshire (part).

Yorkshire & Humberside

North Yorkshire (part), West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Humberside. Lincolnshire (part).

East Midlands

Derbyshire (part), Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire (part), Leicestershire, Northamptonshire.

West Midlands

Salop, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Hereford and Worcester, Warwickshire.

East Anglia

Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire.

South West

Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Avon, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Dorset (part).

South East

Dorset (part), Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Greater London, Surrey, Kent, West Sussex, East Sussex, Isle of Wight.

These boundaries will need to be reviewed in the light of the new local government boundaries, and in the light of the forthcoming report of the Commission on the Constitution. The new local government boundaries come into operation on 1st April 1974.