Local Government Finance

The Office for National Statistics has set out a programme of improvements, which will be accelerated and amplified by the contribution that local government can make to the work. The hon. Gentleman and I have discussed the problem that faces us all. Local authorities often say that they have electoral registration data, GP registration data and national insurance registration data, but that they do not have sources of administrative data, such as those that I mentioned, that are consistent throughout the country and therefore form a suitable basis for the funding distribution decisions that local authorities wish to make. In the end, such data measure what they measure: they are not necessarily measures of population or migration but they can give us useful double-check and triangulation information. I hope that that can happen without undue delay, especially if the work is accelerated in the way in which my hon. Friend the Minister for Borders and Immigration and I intend. However, the data must have the statistical reliability that we all need.