To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the average number of (a) national priority targets and (b) local improvement targets that local area agreements will contain. (182085)

No estimate has been made of the average number of (a) national priority targets and (b) local improvement targets in local area agreements (LAAs). Section 106 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 provides all targets in an LAA are local improvement targets. Up to 35 local improvement targets will be designated by the Secretary of State following negotiation between a local area and the relevant Government Office.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether local authorities will be set local improvement targets via the new (a) local area agreements and (b) multi-area agreements. (182573)

Upper-tier and unitary local authorities will be required to determine local improvement targets when directed by the Secretary of State to prepare a local area agreement (“LAA”) under section 106 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. Once they have been determined in a draft LAA, the LAA will be submitted to the Secretary of State for her approval in accordance with section 107 of that Act. It is expected that all such authorities will therefore set local improvement targets in LAAs.

Unlike LAAs, multi-area agreements do not have a statutory basis. Any outcomes in an MAA are not local improvement targets, unless they are drawn from the relevant LAAs.