Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many full-time equivalent officials in his Department have worked on devolution deals in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

James Wharton

The first devolution deal was agreed with Greater Manchester in November 2014. Since then, the agenda has expanded and accelerated and the Government has resourced accordingly. Devolution is cross-governmental and supported by officials in all relevant departments. The Cities and Local Growth Unit is a joint BIS-DCLG team that supports areas in developing and agreeing devolution deals with the Government. It has over 150 full-time equivalent staff—over 70 of whom are based in DCLG—working on a range of local growth agendas and has six local teams based across the country.