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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the criteria for the selection of successful bids for devolution deals that include a Metro Mayor (1) have been published, and (2) are available for public scrutiny.

The Government's consistent approach to devolution is that powers and budgets are devolved to a functional economic area and that there must be strong and accountable governance proportionate to the powers and budgets being devolved. These criteria were described in the Department’s written evidence to the Communities and Local Government Committee which was published on the inquiry page of the Committee’s website along with its report “Devolution: the next five years and beyond. First Report of Session 2015-16” (HC 369).