To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what inspections of local government take place under (a) the Charter Mark programme, (b) auspices of the Audit Commission and (c) both. (230340)

The Cabinet Office is responsible for the policy on charter mark which has been replaced by a new standard—Customer Service Excellence. Under this new scheme, organisations are helped to develop a customer focused service.

Audit Commission inspections cover service provision such as housing, environment, benefits and cultural services as well as cross cutting issues such as regeneration and community safety.

There are no joint inspections.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the estimated annual effect on costs to the public purse is across (a) central Government, (b) the Audit Commission and (c) local authorities arising from the shift from comprehensive performance assessment to comprehensive area assessment. (230345)

Government have committed to reducing the cost of public service inspection by one-third by 2008-09 compared to 2003-04. Government commissioned the Audit Commission and six other inspectorates who have responsibility relating to inspecting services provided by local authorities and their partners to develop a methodology for the comprehensive area assessment, to be introduced in April 2009. The inspectorates were charged with ensuring the proposals for CAA were consistent with the commitment to reduce costs by one-third, and to explore the potential for further reductions beyond this.