To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the implications of the High Court ruling of City and District Council of St Albans v. Secretary of State for Communications and Local Government, [2009] EWHC 1280 (Admin) for the (a) East of England, (b) South East, (c) South West and (d) West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategies; what plans there are to undertake new environmental impact assessments; and if he will make a statement. (294700)

In the east of England the High Court remitted the housing policies in respect of two districts to the Secretary of State and further work on the sustainability appraisal in respect of those policies is underway. The rest of the east of England RSS stands as part of the statutory development plan.

In the south east we are considering legal challenges in respect of the sustainability appraisal of housing policies two districts. The rest of the south east RSS stands as part of the statutory development plan.

Proposed changes to the south west plan were consulted on last year, however following the east of England High Court ruling, publication of the final RSS has been delayed pending some further work on the sustainability appraisal.

The independent panel report on the draft west midlands RSS was published in September 2009 and the Government are currently considering proposed changes and completing the accompanying sustainability appraisal.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what bursary schemes his Department makes available to postgraduate students on (a) spatial planning and (b) other planning courses; how many students received such payments under each bursary in the last 12 months; and how much his Department spent on each scheme in each region in the last 12 months for which figures are available; (295381)

[holding answer 26 October 2009]: The 16 universities listed as follows offer Royal Town Planning Institute accredited courses and are thus eligible for the CLG bursary scheme.

In 2008-09 92 out of 105 possible bursaries at 15 universities were awarded at a total cost of £894,062.

In 2009-10 it is estimated that 154 will be awarded out of 176 bursaries at 16 universities at an estimated cost of £1,496,033.

The allocations for each university are set out in the following table:

Students have only been required to sign public service contracts since 2008-09 and as such we do not, as yet, have figures for the number of bursary recipients who went on to work (i) in the public sector and (ii) in the private sector. The 2008-09 students have only recently graduated and we will shortly be contacting them to inquire about their employment status.