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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many responses his Department received in response to the consultation entitled, Local welfare provision in 2015 to 2016 from (a) organisations, (b) individuals, (c) local councils and (d) hon. Members.

The Government received more than 5,000 responses to the consultation which are being considered alongside the review by the Department for Work and Pensions into existing provision. The Government will make a decision based on this analysis in time for the provisional local government finance settlement in December 2014.