Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the accuracy of allegations (a) of approximately £500,000 being spent inefficiently by Crawley Borough Council on a recent IT project and (b) that freedom of information requests by residents on that subject have not been fully responded to; and if he will make a statement.

Local councils act independently of central government. They are accountable for their actions to their electorate and there are mechanisms in place for local people to hold councils to account. This means that any questions about spending decisions, the delivery of services, or the performance of a council are for that council to respond to. If local people remain unsatisfied with the response they receive from the council they can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for advice.

In respect of Freedom of Information requests, if a requester is unhappy with the response of the local authority to their FOI requests, they can ask the independent Information Commissioner to investigate.