§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the Audit Commission's comprehensive performance assessment of single tier and county councils; and what assessment he has made of the reasons underlying the proportion of unitary authorities rated as excellent. [90694]
§ Mr. RaynsfordThe assessments were a matter for the Audit Commission. The methodology was widely consulted on with local government, the Local Government Association and other stakeholders. The judgments made for individual authorities drew a great deal of information from varied sources to form an overall view of authorities' services and their capacity to improve. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister considers the assessments provide a robust basis for our programme of improvement.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has made no assessment of the reasons for differences in average scores in different types of authority. The advice of the Audit Commission is that there is no strong evidence of systematic differences between classes of authority and the key message is that it is possible for authorities of all types and with widely varying circumstances to be excellent.