Written question asked by Adam Afriyie (Conservative) on Wednesday, 14 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 December 2005. It was answered by Phil Woolas (Labour) on Tuesday, 20 December 2005 on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Local Government

Question: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) whether the current mid-year population estimates will be used in the Local Government Grant Settlement for 2006–07;

Answer: Mid-2003 population estimates were used in the 2005–06 Local Government Finance Settlement issued on 27 January 2005.The Government announced the provisional settlements for 2006–07 and 2007–08 on 5 December 2005. These have used projections of population in 2006 and 2007 as the dominant data drivers of population in the formulae. These population projections are the 2003-based population projections for 2006 and 2007 produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).Mid-2004 population estimates have been used within indicators used in the calculation of top-up formulae.

Secondary information