§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the civil contingencies grant for emergency planning to(a) North Yorkshire, (b) the City of York, (c) Hambleton district council and (d)Harrogate borough council was in each year since 2000. [165088]
§ Mr. AlexanderThe Civil Defence Grant is paid as a contribution to the cost of civil protection at the local level. The level of funding available for counter terrorism and civil protection has substantially increased in recent years, including £330 million for counter terrorism work in the 2003 Budget.
1445W179 local authorities are eligible for the Civil Defence Grant. These are the authorities with a statutory duty for civil defence, namely county councils, metropolitan districts and London boroughs, unitary authorities, and Fire and Civil Defence Authorities Shire districts, such as Hambleton and Harrogate, have no statutory duty for civil defence and therefore receive no direct funding from central Government. Shire counties carry out emergency planning on behalf of their districts and for this work they receive an additional amount included in their grant allocation, currently set at £12,000 per district.
The allocations of Civil Defence Grant to the authorities of North Yorkshire county council and the City of York council since the financial year 2000–01 are set out in the table. The increase in 2001–02 was due to the suspension of the process of allocating funding by use of a formula. Following negotiations with the local Government Association, the Civil Defence (Grant) Act 2002 re-established a formula, which led to the stabilisation of grant levels in 2002–03.
£ Financial year North Yorkshire Civil Defence Grant City of York Civil Defence Grant 2000–01 161,369 50,525 2001–02 268,150 79,815 2002–03 244,137 71,834 2003–04 244,523 72,220 2004–05 244,523 72,220