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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the recommendations of the Non-Metropolitan Commission’s recent report, "Devolution to Non-Metropolitan England"; and what is their assessment of the possible gains for counties from devolution compared to those for city regions.

We have not undertaken any formal assessment of that third-party report. However, I would draw attention to the recent Command Paper, Implications of devolution for England (Cm 8969) which sets out the Government’s approach to further decentralisation in England, including the views of both Coalition parties, both of which make reference to the role of England’s counties.