§ Mr. Don FosterTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) what the total cost to his Department was of producing regional planning guidance for the English regions; [30200]
(2) what was (a) the total bill for salaries and expenses for board members, (b) the administrative operating costs and (c) the total annual budget in the latest year for which figures are available for each regional planning conference in England. [30202]
§ Ms KeebleDetails of the costs incurred by all regional planning bodies in producing draft regional planning guidance are not available to the Department. These bodies, which range from local authorities acting collectively to voluntary regional chambers, are neither appointed by nor report to the Department but are recognised by it for the purposes of preparing and monitoring regional planning guidance. The Department contributes some £6 million a year to the upper tier local authorities on an unhypothecated basis towards the costs of producing and monitoring regional planning guidance. In addition it has an annual budget of approximately £1 million a year for running the public examinations and research. The annual staff costs of the Department and Government offices for this work are approximately £800,000.