To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether his Department undertook an impact assessment in relation to the changes made to the Code of Conduct on Local Authority Publicity before those changes came into effect; and whether an assessment of the effectiveness of the changes has been undertaken. (294513)

As part of the changes to council governance arrangements, in particular the introduction of elected mayors, revisions were made in 2001 to the code of recommended practice on local authority publicity. These are the only changes which have been made to the code to date and have been subject to neither an impact assessment nor a subsequent assessment of effectiveness.

However, there have been two consultations on whether and how the code might be revised, the latest being earlier this year on which over 300 representations have been received. We will be publishing our response to the consultation later this year, but the representations do not reveal any widespread concern about council freesheets and newsletters.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations his Department has received on the effects of the operation of local authority newspapers on commercially produced newspapers in the same area. (294523)

A representative of the Newspaper Society, which represents and promotes the interests of Britain's regional and local media, wrote to me about this issue in August.

All council publicity, including newsletters and freesheets, is subject to the code of recommended practice on local authority publicity, to which local authorities must have regard. There have been two consultations on whether and how the code might be revised, the latest being earlier this year. We will be publishing our response to the consultation later this year, but the representations do not reveal any widespread concern about council freesheets and newsletters.