As ever when the noble Lord and I—I was about to use the term “trading blows” but I never trade blows with the noble Lord—have our cordial exchanges across the Floor, be it in the Moses Room or the Chamber, one thing I am always guaranteed is a number of questions from him. I hope the noble Lord appreciates, as I am sure he does, that where possible I try and provide a rapid response service. He raised a number of other questions but I come back to the question about the quarterly data. As I said, during the recent consultation the Government made absolutely clear their intention to regulate and to require the quarterly publication of certain information. These quarterly data are about spending and the contracts they sign. Specifically on the contracts information, having greater transparency would impact and increase competitiveness. Therefore, certain parts of this certainly would require quarterly reporting. As I said in my opening remarks, some actually requested that this be done on a monthly basis.
The noble Lord talked about centralisation. I have served in local government, as has the noble Lord, and if we take a step back I think we would both recognise that there are occasions where, of course, every local authority rightly demands local and devolved powers. However, to set a standard there are certain requirements that central government must set in codes of conduct and codes of practice. We seek to do just that, to provide the framework in which local authorities are then required to provide greater transparency at a local level, with the key beneficiaries being local residents. I hope that I have been clear on that. Moreover, the evidence from the National Audit Office, the LGA and the Press Association shows that local authorities at times have not volunteered and published key information that residents would find useful. The Government are not seeking to coerce or impose but to provide guidance and a framework in which local authorities can report more effectively and more regularly, on a quarterly basis.
There were a number of other questions. I have already said that I would write to the noble Lord on one. He raised the issue of VAT. We have discussed the treatment of VAT with the CIPFA, based on questions that arose from authorities. Where VAT cannot be recovered, the gross amount should be published instead, otherwise the amount of VAT paid would be published, be it at partial or full rate.
The noble Lord also asked about parking spaces and reviews. He will be aware that parking restrictions and enforcement are important issues to local people. I can remember my postbag being rather full with such complaints. Not that many people wrote to me telling me how wonderful the local parking restrictions were, but one or two did and they have gone into my memory box.
I am sure that the noble Lord would agree that local people should be able to see the core data and be able to take an informed view of the authority’s decisions. We have used existing DfT definitions in drafting this code. I assure the noble Lord, and I am particular about doing so whether it be on primary legislation or orders, that we will revisit Hansard and if there are specific questions that I have not answered completely, I will write to him.