My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Yvette Cooper) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

The right to control aims to provide disabled adults with more choice and control over the support they need to live their lives, and how they receive that support. It allows them to select whether they receive funding direct, support from a service provider, or a mixture of both.

To understand how the right to control can be best implemented, we plan to test this approach within a small number of trailblazer sites. On 8 December 2009, we published a prospectus inviting interested authorities to be at the forefront of this innovative approach and apply to become a trailblazer site.

We have selected eight sites that have provided us with quality proposals. These sites will also provide a good geographical balance between rural and urban communities as well as a mixture of different types of authorities.

The trailblazing authorities are:

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and Sheffield City Council (joint);

Essex County Council;

Greater Manchester—incorporating Manchester City Council, Oldham Council, Bury Council, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and Trafford Council;

Leicester City Council;

London Borough of Barnet;

London Borough of Newham;

Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, and

Surrey County Council (two Districts: Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, and Reigate and Banstead Borough Council)

To ensure that the greater independence requested by disabled people is being met, Jobcentre Plus will also be working closely with each of these authorities to provide a more streamlined service, and support for disabled people to achieve the outcomes that suit them best.

These eight sites will commence delivery of the right to control by the end of 2010, and will continue for a period of two years. Their findings will help inform the decision as to whether the right to control can be rolled out further.

Today we are also publishing our consultation document on our statutory regulations that will support the delivery of the right to control by the trailblazers. This can be viewed and downloaded from the Office for Disability Issues website at www.odi.gov.uk/right-to-control. Copies of the document will be placed in the House Library.