Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 1: 1: Before Clause 1, insert the following new Clause— ““Devolution of powers to local authorities: Commission (1) The Secretary of State shall by order appoint a Standing Commission to investigate and report on the devolution of powers to local authorities in England, to be known as the Devolution Commission. (2) The Devolution Commission shall consist of equal numbers of persons appointed by the Secretary of State and by representative bodies of local authorities. (3) The Devolution Commission shall consider which powers and functions of the following bodies are appropriate for devolution and transfer to local authorities— (a) government departments which operate at national, regional or local level; (b) non-departmental public bodies which operate at national, regional or local level; (c) partnership-type bodies which operate at national, regional or local level; (d) all other bodies of whatever kind which exercise powers and carry out functions on behalf of government and of a governmental nature which operate at national, regional or local level. (4) The Devolution Commission shall from time to time submit a programme of work for approval by each House of Parliament. (5) The Devolution Commission shall report to the Secretary of State with initial findings within six months of its formation, and afterwards with further findings at six monthly intervals. (6) Reports of the Devolution Commission shall be published at the same time as they are sent to the Secretary of State. (7) The Secretary of State shall within three months of receiving a report from the Devolution Commission present a report to Parliament giving the government’s response to that report. (8) An order under subsection (1) may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament. (9) For the purposes of this Chapter, each of the following is a ““local authority””— (a) a county council; (b) a district council; (c) a London borough; (d) a parish council.”” The noble Lord said: I am sure that we will have a number of days of extremely interesting discussions on this Bill. On behalf of the whole Committee, I welcome the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, back to pole position on the Bill. I also congratulate her on her survival, first, of the appalling cold that she had a fortnight ago, which prevented her from making her speech on Second Reading, and, secondly, of the recent government reshuffle, which was probably even more harrowing. We are very pleased to see her sitting in her place again this morning. I pay tribute, too, to the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, who substituted for the Minister extremely competently at Second Reading and who, I understand, will reply to some of the amendments in Committee, despite the fact that she was on duty on the Pensions Bill yesterday. It is clear that the Government are working their Ministers in this House fairly hard at the moment—and it is said that they are looking for reinforcements.