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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure its services are available online; and if he will make a statement.

My Department does not provide any transactional services to the general public as such.

The Planning Inspectorate provides a planning appeals service; information about its electronic transactions can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/performance/transactions-explorer/department/dclg/by-transactions-per-year/descending

My Department will shortly be introducing secondary legislation to facilitate council papers being sent to councillors in an electronic format.

The newly updated local government Transparency Code will ensure that more information about councils’ activities is available for online scrutiny.

Earlier this year, we amended legislation to allow council meetings to be reported through digital media.