Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to increase scrutiny arrangements in mayoral combined authorities.

There is an existing system of accountability and scrutiny arrangements for Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) to ensure that public spending is achieving value for money with an array of monitoring and reporting processes for MCAs. The government is committed to strengthening the accountability and scrutiny arrangements that will enable central government, mayors, combined authorities and combined county authorities to shift gear into a new mode of genuine partnership. This will be set out in the upcoming English Devolution White Paper.