Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 8: 8: Clause 2, page 2, line 33, at end insert— ““(c) in relation to any proposal, the current county council or a new authority.”” The noble Baroness said: I shall speak only to this amendment, which has been grouped with amendments that are to do with residual bodies and other arrangements. This is a probing amendment to help us to understand the Government’s thinking on the governance of unitary counties. Some of the proposals that are currently on offer—and we can talk firmly about them, because we know that we are dealing with not abstract but real proposals—include unitary counties such as Somerset, Cumbria and Shropshire. I seek to probe whether the Secretary of State intends to treat these as continuing county authorities or whether they will be new authorities altogether. Even in those areas where there is a high degree of consensus for a unitary county, there is still concern at the idea of what one might describe as a county takeover. It is unsettling for district council employees and councillors. For the areas involved, it is a significant matter in terms of electoral and governance arrangements. Councils tend to develop their own ethos over the years—a sort of culture and way of behaving. A continuing authority will tend to result in the ethos simply being handed over, while the new authority model provides an opportunity for change. Do the Government intend to treat these new county authorities as new authorities or continuing counties? I beg to move.