To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the (a) name and (b) grade is of the most senior civil servant working on unitary authority bids; how long that person worked in her Department; and how much he or she is paid per annum. (138101)

It has not been the practice of successive Governments to name officials in public responses. Peter Housden is the Permanent Secretary and is the Department’s Principal Accounting Officer and Principal Policy Adviser to the Secretary of State. He has been in his post at this Department and previously at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister since 24 October 2005.