§ Mr. HallTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the rules governing the spending of capital budgets by local authorities during the transitional period to unitary authorities. [1087]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordAuthorities in the transitional period before reorganisation are governed by the same rules on capital spending as other authorities, but in addition are subject to the prudential code of financial management, jointly published in 1994 by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and the local authority associations, and approved by the Audit Commission. I have arranged for a copy of the code to be placed in the Library.