To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) eligibility conditions and (b) compliance measures are in place in respect of the expenditure by local authorities of each grant distributed by his Department; and what recent estimate has been made of the annual cost to his Department of monitoring the compliance by local authorities with such measures in respect of each such grant.

Grant eligibility conditions and compliance measures are set out in local authority social services letters (LASSLs) and local authority circulars (LACs), as published by the Department. These official circulars notify local authorities of their specific revenue and capital grant funding and the Department's contributions to the area-based grant (ABG) in support of social care policies (including children's personal social services funding insofar as this is provided by the children and adolescent mental health services contribution).

From April 2008, the majority of revenue grants will be delivered to local authorities through the Department's contribution to the ABG. The ABG is paid on an unringfenced basis and as such local authorities are able to determine locally how best to spend these grants in order to deliver local and national priorities. As an unringfenced grant, there are no restrictions on carry forward between financial years. This represents a considerable increase in the flexibility open to local government to take local spending decisions in line with the new performance framework. The ABG is administered by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) and paid to local authorities on a monthly basis.

For the small number of ring-fenced grants, these are allocated via a bidding process. Therefore, there are 'eligibility' criteria and compliance measures attached to the use of these monies in order to meet the specific social care policy.

Copies of LASSL(s) and LACs are available at:

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Lettersandcirculars/index.htm