Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I congratulate the hon. Member for North-East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) on his questions. As ever, he has clearly done his research, and he has given me the opportunity to allay the fears that the Local Government Association expressed to him. He asked whether these powers were too wide ranging and what prompted the change. As you would expect, Madam Deputy Speaker, there is a history to this. The commitment to review part V of the 1989 Act was indeed trailed, as hon. Members know, through the White Paper ““Modern local government: in touch with the people”” published in July 1998, and in the ““Modernising Local Government Finance”” Green Paper in September 2000. The Government have, with their partners, a capital programmes working party technical sub-group. In 2003, at that sub-group, the LGA expressed a desire to move local authority companies to be defined according to accounting practices. This Bill provides an opportunity to do that, now that there have been adequate discussions. If I may, I shall explain that. We intend, of course, to consult on the content of the proposed order. The hon. Member for North-East Bedfordshire asked whether there had been problems or whether we were tidying up. Essentially, we are tidying up because of the change in the architecture of local government provision of services. For the record, I am informed that the power has been used only twice since 1989, although I am not aware of the details of those two occasions. The hon. Gentleman implied that the Chancellor has moved the golden rules. I reject that charge, which is not backed up by evidence. Local government borrowing is an important part of the PSBR. The answer to his question about inspection and audit is, yes, they are subject to the same provisions. I am grateful for the caveat that he gave with his question about dormant companies or entities because he is absolutely right—the matter is too detailed for me to attempt an answer now. To answer the question of the hon. Member for Lichfield (Michael Fabricant) about ““control””, ““controlling””, ““ownership”” and ““connected with””, the point at issue is what the potential liability is. A local authority could control an entity and, through that control, it could incur a liability that was, or was not, dependent on the local authority. The question of ownership and control relates to that. I made reference to that in the eighth point of my opening speech. I know that the hon. Gentleman followed my remarks closely, so I shall not repeat them, but I congratulate him on his vigilance in probing the point.