§ Mr. ColemanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) when decisions on the content of the Index of Local Deprivation will be announced; and if he will make a statement; [110539]
(2) when the underlying data used to calculate the proposed Index of Local Deprivation 1999 will be released; and if he will make a statement. [110540]
§ Ms Beverley HughesThe final 1999 Index is due to be published in spring 2000 along with a summary report and a supporting document. This final index will include 707W local authority district level scores and ranks. The scores and ranks at the ward level will be published at the same time and will be available for each domain separately (income, work, health and disability, education, skills and training, housing and geographical access to services). A further more detailed report will be published in summer 2000.
The summary report will contain details about where to obtain, sometimes at a charge, the underlying data, used to construct the 33 indicators.
§ Mr. ColemanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what (a) was the membership of and (b) were the organisations represented on the (i) advising group and (ii) virtual advising group which advised the Index 99 team on the Index of Deprivation. [110541]
§ Ms Beverley HughesThe review of the 1999 Index of Local Deprivation was overseen by an inter-departmental steering committee. This included representatives from DETR, Department for Education and Employment, Department of Health, the Office for National Statistics, the Department of Social Security, the Home Office, The Department of Trade and Industry, the Treasury, the Social Exclusion Unit, The Northumbria Police, the Countryside Agency, The Local Government Association, the Improvement and Development Agency, The Welsh Executive, the Scottish Executive, the Northern Ireland Office, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the University of Cambridge and all Regional Development Agencies (East of England Development Agency, East Midlands Development Agency, North East Development Agency, North West Development Agency, South East of England Development Agency, South West Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside Development Agency).
In addition, the review team benefited from the advice of a large advisory panel with a range of different skills and areas of expertise. This included academics from a number of Universities including Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Lincolnshire, the London School of Economics, Warwick and York and members of other organisations including the Policy Studies Institute, the Local Government Association, the Improvement and Development Agency and the Central and Local Government Information Partnership sub group on deprivation statistics.