South Downs National Park

Mr. Tyrie
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much (a) has been spent and (b) is planned to be spent on (i) consultation, (ii) organisational set-up, (iii) project management, (iv) communications, (v) planning, (vi) wages, (vii) pensions, (viii) office running and (ix) other costs of the South Downs National Park in the next 12 months.

Huw Irranca-Davies
The cost of the two public inquiries and a recent hearing totalled £3.26 million. We expect that less than £1 million will be spent on setting up the South Downs National Park Authority in the current financial year. The budgets for future years have yet to be determined.

Mr. Tyrie
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether any existing local authority staff will be made redundant as a result of the establishment of the South Downs National Park.

Huw Irranca-Davies
It is for individual local authorities to decide whether or not to retain staff.

Where a national park authority takes over functions from a local authority then, as happened in the New Forest, it is very probable that the existing staff will have employment rights under either (or both) of: the statutory instrument that establishes the national park authority; and the generic Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) legislation.