Clause 1 - Civil defence: grants
Civil Defence (Grant) Bill
10:30 am
Mr Mark Oaten (Winchester, Liberal Democrat)
This is an opportunity to explore why a change has been introduced to what would seem to be a most sensible way of allocating grants. The system suggested in the Bill would set aside the standard formula for allocating money for different authorities. Why is that different approach being taken? It is hard to understand why a standard formula cannot be worked out to take account of different sizes of authority and authorities' different demands. Once fixed and in place, the point of such formulas is to take account of differences that emerge. It is not clear why the Government want to change the system and allow the Minister to take differing views and change the formula. It is unclear why such decisions will be taken, what criteria the Government would use to make different allocations, when that would happen, whether the Minister wants to be able to do that annually or at short notice, who would be informed and how transparent the process will be. That raises some concerns—I do not for a moment suggest that the Minister would be involved in this—that Ministers might come under pressure as a result of special pleading from particular authorities, or, perhaps, favoured authorities that have done particularly well, or a chat in a corridor. I do not believe that that is a transparent way in which to set a grant system.
The Minister might respond by saying that it is necessary to be able to react to events and that it is difficult to plan some of these things a year in advance, as circumstances might change. The events of 11 September illustrate that. Perhaps that is why the Government want flexibility: they want to be able to make adjustments if special circumstances arise in, for example, Birmingham, Manchester or Oldham that suddenly require something to be done that does not conform to the formula.
However, I understand that that flexibility already exists: additional payments can be made for certain projects or emergencies. Therefore, a standard formula could be established, and if special circumstances arose, additional resources could be invested.
As a consequence, I am unclear about why this is needed. I hope that the Minister will give a little more information about it. Why is it necessary? How would the change be allocated? Would Parliament have an opportunity to scrutinise the matter? It would be wrong if the Minister could decide, without anyone else having the right to express an opinion or make a judgment, that, for instance, the formula needed to be changed in the middle of the financial year, so that more resources could be allocated to Birmingham or Manchester.