Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 118: 118: Clause 62, page 33, line 39, after ““(8)”” insert ““— (a)”” The noble Lord said: This group has a simple aim: to allow councils to have a larger executive if they wish, and to make the size of the executive allowed proportionate to the size of the council—that is to say, a quarter of the number of councillors rather than 10 members. It is a simple matter. If the Government believe that lots of different models are a good idea, they should accept this. Some of us are worried that the Government have a clear idea of which models work and which do not. They are trying to squeeze people into a limited number of models that work and to cause convergence between those models so that they are more similar as time goes on. In practice, a diversity of models is a good thing because, if we want to find out what is and is not good practice, or what does and does not work in different circumstances, we ought to have lots of different models and not just a straitjacket of two or three. Having said that, this minor matter would help some councils, particularly those that have single-party executives but would like to involve opposition groups on the executive. I beg to move.