§ Dr. KumarTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how much is spent annually on external inspection of local government; and if he will make a statement on the methods used to assess the effectiveness of such inspections. [28818]
§ Dr. WhiteheadThe following costs identified represent those of the major[Interruption.] Inspectorates working in the local government field together with the 714W costs of district audit. Apart from district audit and inspection by the Audit Commission Inspection Service, which include a fee element, these costs are centrally funded by sponsoring Departments.
Other inspection bodies, such as the Health and Safety Executive, will have some involvement with local government, but figures for this are not readily identifiable or available.
The figures do not include any element of the indirect costs of inspection to authorities; e.g. staff time, as no agreed or reliable figures are available.
Audit Commission Inspection Service
Audit Commission, district audit and best value inspection costs for the audit year 2001–02 are likely to be in the region of £194 million. Best value inspection costs represent a £44 million component of this figure which includes £23.5 million in direct grant paid by DTLR and the National Assembly for Wales. The remainder of the costs are charged in fees supported through the Revenue Support Grant in England and Wales.Social Services Inspectorate (SSI)
In 2001–02 SSI inspections cost £5.2 million. £4.5 million of this related to inspection of social services functions that are the responsibility of local councils.Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI)
The total running costs for the BFI in the last three years is circa £6 million per year.HM Fire Service Inspectorate
Spend in 2001–02 is £1,660,000.Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED)
The total direct cost (i.e. excluding overheads) of LEA inspections in 2000–01 amounted to about £2.3 million.Assessment of the effectiveness of the various statutory and non-statutory components of the inspection regimes applied by each inspectorate, is the responsibility of the relevant sponsoring department. However, the Local Government White Paper seeks to deliver inspection regimes which more fully reflect authority performance, with a substantial reduction in inspection activity for the high performing. Our intention is that inspection will be co-ordinated across all local authority functions and will reflect risk analysis of each local authority based on a comprehensive performance assessment.