§ Mr. Corbynasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what assumptions were made in the grant-related expenditure assessment formula regarding the need for a home help service, meals on wheels and residential care for the elderly in each of the local authorities listed in the Rate Limitation Order for 1984–85, 1985–86 and 1986–87.
§ Mr. John PattenThe grant-related expenditure assessment for an authority does not constitute a prescriptive statement about what an authority should spend or needs to spend. For individual services, such as those mentioned in the hon. Member's question, formulae have been developed to assess the cost of providing a common standard of service across all authorities. These formulae are based on research into the factors which can give rise to an individual requiring personal social services. It is for each authority to determine within its overall budget how much it spends on those services and to decide on priorities as between different services.