§ Mr. Tomlinsonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he is satisfied with the demarcation lines between the metropolitan county councils and the metropolitan districts and with the avoidance of an overlap of functions between them: and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John SilkinI do not consider the present allocation of functions to metropolitan county councils and metropolitan districts to be ideal, but the new authorities have only just taken over their responsibilities; it would be quite wrong to make further changes now, and we must wait and see how the new organisation develops in practice.