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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many full-time equivalent officials in his Department have worked on devolution deals in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

The first devolution deal was agreed with Greater Manchester in November 2014. Since then, the agenda has expanded and accelerated and the Government has resourced accordingly. Devolution is cross-governmental and supported by officials in all relevant departments. The Cities and Local Growth Unit is a joint BIS-DCLG team that supports areas in developing and agreeing devolution deals with the Government. It has over 150 full-time equivalent staff—over 70 of whom are based in DCLG—working on a range of local growth agendas and has six local teams based across the country.