Written - All Wales Local Government Performance Data 2005-06

At 9.30am today, 31 October 2006, the Local Government Data Unit – Wales will publish comprehensive and verified data on local authority performance in 2005-06. They will also publish a statistical bulletin, which will provide a clear and accessible analysis of the data and will enable citizens to consider their authority’s performance and, where necessary, hold them to account.  

I welcome this report from the Data Unit.  It provides an opportunity to reflect on and highlight the genuine and sustained commitment by local authorities and their employees to deliver high quality services to local people.  For instance, the report shows that local authorities are sending less rubbish to landfill sites, and recycling more.  They are protecting children in their care better, working very well with the NHS to reduce bed-blocking in hospitals, and they are repairing council houses more quickly.  

However, the report also identifies those areas in which local authorities have performed less well. Local authorities in different parts of Wales face different and sometimes formidable challenges, and I accept that some variations in performance are inevitable –– but in some cases the range of performance from the best to the worst is too high.  We and our partners in local government need to do more to narrow these gaps, to encourage local authorities to learn from each other, and to set clear standards of service that people have a right to expect.   We will be working on those and other initiatives over the next few months.

I will be taking a paper on the local authority performance data to the 8 November 2006 meeting of the Local Government and Public Services Committee, where Assembly Members will have an opportunity to consider, discuss and comment upon it.

Note: The report on Local Authority Performance 2005-6 will be published at 9.30am today by the Local Government Data Unit – Wales and will be available, along with the full set of data on which it is based, from their website www.dataunitwales.gov.uk.  The Data Unit is responsible for collecting and disseminating statistical information about all aspects of Welsh local government and the services it provides.  It is wholly independent of the Welsh Assembly Government.