§ Mr. Roy HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the indicative contributions from the 22 constituent councils to their respective fire authorities. [3991]
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesThe information requested is given in the following table:
Local authority contributions to fire authority budgets 1996–97 £ thousand Conwy 2,707 Denbighshire 2,233 Flintshire 3,553 Gwynedd 2,860 Isle of Anglesey 1,672 Wrexham 3,020 North Wales Fire Authority 16,045 Carmarthenshire 4,929 Ceredigion 2,033 Neath Port Talbot 4,085 Pembrokeshire 3,329 Powys 3,551 Swansea 6,734 Mid and West Wales Fire Authority 24,661 Blaenau Gwent 1,888 Bridgend 3,370 Caerphilly 4,405 Cardiff 7,895 Merthyr Tydfil 1,532 Monmouthshire 2,169 Newport 3,539 Rhondda Cynon Taff 6,156 Torfaen 2,332 The Vale of Glamorgan 3,063 South Wales Fire Authority 36,349 Wales 77,055 Source:
Local authority budget returns.
§ Mr. HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what representations he has received from local authorities in Wales on each of the three fire service budgets; and what has been his response to these representations. [3993]
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesI have responded to two representations from local authorities in Wales. The matter was also raised at the meeting of the Welsh Consultative Council on Local Government Finance on 23 September. The funding of fire brigades is the responsibility of their constituent local authorities. Provision for fire spending is included in the 1996–97 local authority revenue settlement which was approved by the House of Commons on 8 February.
§ Mr. HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what action he proposes to take in the event of one of the fire authorities failing to vote a supplementary levy in order to set a budget for the proper delivery of the fire services in Wales; and if he will make a statement. [3990]
§ Mr. JonesUnder the relevant legislation, this situation cannot arise. Each fire authority is required to set a budget which will enable its brigade to meet its statutory obligations under the Fire Services Act 1947 and to comply with the nationally recommended minimum432W standards of fire cover. In the case of combined fire authorities there is scope for the budget to be increased where circumstances warrant it.
Paragraph 21(5) of the South Wales Fire Services (Combination Scheme) Order 1995 requires that payments made to the South Wales fire authority by its constituent local authorities
shall be made at such times, and shall be of such amounts, as are at all times sufficient to enable the financial obligations of the Authority to be met.Similar provisions are contained in the orders for the Mid and West Wales, and North Wales fire authorities.
§ Mr. HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the standard spending assessment figures for fire services in Wales prior to reorganisation and the figures for the aggregated budgets of the (i) North Wales, (ii) Mid and West Wales and (iii) South Wales fire services. [3992]
§ Mr. JonesThere were no standard spending assessments for fire brigades in Wales before reorganisation. Fire brigades were covered by the SSAs of the old counties.
The following table gives the 1995–96 fire brigade budgets of the old counties aggregated as closely as possible to the new combined fire authority areas. The only difference between these aggregated areas and the new fire authority areas is a small part of Clwyd which was transferred to Powys on 1 April 1996.
Local authority fire brigade budgets 1995–96 County area 1995–96 budget£(000) Gwynedd/Clwyd 15,602 Dyfed/Powys/West Glamorgan 22,227 Mid Glamorgan/South Glamorgan/Gwent 34,187 Wales 72,016 Source:
Local authority returns.