Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, on speaking through quite a challenging moment. I am very glad that we have been able to have this debate now. Before I turn to the amendments, let me confirm to the noble Baroness that ““district”” includes unitaries. The Government are opposed to the amendments tabled against Clause 53 and 45. Current standard practice is that parish council elections are held in the same year as the elections to the district ward within which they are situated. This is to reduce the costs and administrative burdens on electoral administrators. Amendment No. 88 would allow the date to be set for a year different from that for the district ward elections, which would increase costs and administrative burdens. We are therefore opposed to this amendment. On Amendment No. 89, we do not consider that central government needs to be prescriptive on the consultation procedure that the district council follows. I mentioned that approach earlier in Committee. The aim of devolution is to trust democratically accountable local authorities to act reasonably and to consult those parties which they consider to be interested. We do not believe that provision specifying these specific consultation steps needs to be made in the Bill. However, the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, is perfectly reasonable. Making an amendment which would allow the parish council’s view to prevail on this issue is not acceptable. We are devolving responsibility to local authorities. The aim is to reduce the administrative burden and costs for electoral administrators, and therefore the district council must decide. There would also be a considerable risk that a political group controlling a parish council might choose an election year that would suit its electoral prospects. In relation to Amendment No. 90, we have retained the power in the Local Government Act 2000 so that if in the future, for example, the vast majority of councils in England operated whole-council elections, the Secretary of State would be able to move the remaining few councils to achieve a uniform pattern across England. The amendment would prevent the Secretary of State from doing that in the future under any circumstances. We are clear that the power to change electoral cycles should generally be devolved to local authorities. However, we believe it is important that the Secretary of State retains a power that in particular and, I stress, exceptional circumstances he or she may use in the future to change, by order, a council’s electoral cycle to that of whole-council elections. I hope that the noble Baroness will consider withdrawing her amendment.