§ Mr. Craigenasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on his Department's miscalculation of the 1984–85 provisional current expenditure guidelines issued to Scottish local authorities, indicating how it arose, how the error was discovered and how he proposes to remedy the error.
§ Mr. AncramThe budget returns for 1983–84 submitted by local authorities are one of the many factors in the calculation of current expenditure guidelines for 1984–85. Adjustments to these returns agreed with three authorities were not carried into the guideline calculations. This omission was drawn to the Department's attention by one of the authorities whose guideline was lower than it would have been had the adjusted budget been used. The authority principally concerned was Edinburgh district council. The other two authorities, Strathclyde regional council and Orkney islands council, were affected to a much lesser extent.
My right hon. Friend has told the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities that he is considering the best way of remedying this and that the three authorities concerned will not suffer as a consequence nor will there be reductions in the guidelines of the remaining authorities.