Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I rise to add to the probing. The Statement and the Green Paper were clear in their analysis and description of what the Government meant by devolution. For example, there was strong mention of London and city regions, but scant reference to the structure of local government as it exists today. There was also the reference to a concordat—a nice vague word—and a page and a half on regions and responsibility. It seems clear that the Bill is an enabling mechanism to make it possible to end with a structure that is regional in England, with devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. That structure goes over all those institutions, including local government, that might be aspiring to some kind of independence, and reaches down into something called communities. There is no definition of ““community”” in any government document produced to date. I know when I go to the village in which I live in North Yorkshire that it is a community—one of about 300 souls. It is a real community. However, when I come to Westminster, where is my community? Is it Westminster? Is it London? What is it? There are many references to local people and to their rights, which are described in a way that means that what they are supposed to do is to hold administrators to account. According to this Green Paper, it does not really matter whether the people in the local government structure that we know today are elected. Under the new dispensation, it is not clear whether the Prime Minister minds that there was a referendum in the north-east that rejected the proposal for an elected regional assembly. He may prefer to have appointed regional bodies. Therefore, I believe that this Bill is an enabling mechanism to increase centralisation and central control. It has nothing in it to make it at all likely that local democracy will be revived in the way that the majority of noble Lords would wish.