Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) equity of Solent local enterprise partnership's grant criteria in relation to the Southsea sea defence scheme.

The National Local Growth Assurance Framework is published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This Framework sets out Government’s guidance on the assurance requirements for local growth funding as well as guidance for LEPs on carrying out value for money assessments on the funding it provides.

The Solent LEP’s Local Assurance Framework is published on its website and sets out how the LEP operates, including processes for decision-making, project approval and monitoring. In accordance with the Framework minutes of both LEP Board and the Funding, Finance and Performance Management Group meetings are publicly available on the LEP website.

LEPs are also required to participate in relevant Local Authority scrutiny arrangements to guarantee the effective and appropriate scrutiny of their investment decisions, this is in addition to their internal scrutiny and audit arrangements.