Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

Perhaps the Minister will pick up that point later. It is clear that the Government have moved on the question of whole council elections, and there might be further debate on that issue. My response to my hon. Friend is that all local authorities have their electoral arrangements reviewed periodically, and I presume that if they change their arrangements between one, two or three members in a particular borough, the next time a review took place within the ordinary schedule, those arrangements could be changed again. I do not see any great reason for an immediate change to that process. Also, determining whether something works or does not work can sometimes be quite subjective. A local authority will produce a scheme and present it to the boundary committee, which will either approve it or give its reasons for not doing so. I would be grateful if the Minister could say whether, if there were a variation on the scheme, the boundary committee could enter into negotiations or propose changes to the scheme. Alternatively, would the boundary committee have to accept or reject the scheme put forward by the local authority with a yes or a no? How much dialogue could take place? The Minister looks somewhat quizzical. If a local authority put forward a scheme for its area to the boundary committee, and the boundary committee agreed with 90 per cent. of it but had concerns about 10 per cent., would it have to reject it entirely on the ground of that 10 per cent. that it believed the local authority had got wrong, or could there be a degree of discussion whereby both sides could reach agreement, with the scheme being rejected only if there were no common ground? A great deal of time could be wasted if local authorities’ schemes were simply chucked out because of a disagreement on just part of the proposal. I should like to hear a little more detail about how the provision will operate, but the Government are going down the right road in the manner in which they are constructing the various new clauses. Given our concerns about aspects of the provision, however, we have tabled amendment No. 163, which calls for a referendum in the affected wards. We are unlikely to press that to a vote, because I am not sure how practical the proposal is. It is just the Opposition trying to flesh out the fact that there could be concerns among the electorate, who are used to the way in which their electoral arrangements work and might be worried about any proposed changes.