§ Mr. HoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland d he will give details of the differences in income to councillors as a result of the changes in allowances applicable from 1 April 1990.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe overall resources available for councillors' allowances in Scotland will be no less than at present. Details of how the resources are to be distributed have yet to be finalised after consultation with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. We have proposed that the amount available to individual authorities should be determined by the type of authority, the workload of that authority, the number of constituents and the number of councillors. Within that basic framework, we are also willing to consider sympathetically any reasonable proposals for banding by population which the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities can devise, provided these command a broad measure of support from authorities.
§ Mr. HoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what representations he has received on the changes contained in the Housing and Local Government Bill regarding allowances paid to councillors.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood) on 28 November at column112.