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Government interventions in Tower Hamlets and Rotherham councils inquiry launched

23 May 2016

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The Communities and Local Government Committee has launched an inquiry into the imposition of commissioners on Tower Hamlets and Rotherham councils.

The Government interventions followed allegations of corruption in Tower Hamlets and the child sexual exploitation scandal in Rotherham.

The Committee examines the effectiveness of the takeovers and the process of returning power to the local authorities and aims to identify any lessons for possible future interventions.

In Tower Hamlets, commissioners took over grant-making functions, the sale or disposal of property and council publicity, while in Rotherham they assumed executive control of the local authority.

The Committee is looking to question commissioners and councillors from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and a minister from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

Chair's comments

Clive Betts, Chair of the Committee, said:

"Seizing control of a local authority's powers is an extremely serious step for any Government to take.

We will look very carefully to see if this has been done effectively in Tower Hamlets and Rotherham and explore the efforts being made to return democratic control to the two communities.

The Committee is also keen to see if the process can be improved for possible cases in the future."

Written submissions

The Committee is inviting written submissions on the following areas:

  • The actions taken by Rotherham and Tower Hamlets to address failings before commissioners were imposed
  • The criteria for imposing commissioners on elected authorities
  • The effectiveness and performance of commissioners
  • Commissioner governance and decision making, and their relationship with elected councillors
  • DCLG procedures and the criteria for returning functions to local authorities
  • The extent to which other local authorities and their partner organisations have responded to and learned lessons from Rotherham and Tower Hamlets
  • How DCLG monitors the performance and government arrangements of local authorities

The deadline for written submissions is Monday 13 June 2016.

Background to the inquiry

The inquiry follows a report, Child sexual exploitation in Rotherham: Ofsted and further government issues, published in March 2015 by the Committee in the previous parliament.

It looked at the failure of Ofsted's inspection arrangements to detect evidence or knowledge within the council of large-scale child exploitation in the town.

Further information

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