Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 123A: 123A: Clause 63, page 34, line 20, at end insert— ““(1A) Nothing in subsection (1) shall prevent the allocation of functions at any time to an area committee constituted under the provisions of section 18.”” The noble Lord said: This is an important probing amendment, and I hope I shall get some very satisfactory answers to my questions. I understand that Section 18 of the Local Government Act 2000 was inserted during the progress of the Bill through Parliament in order to preserve the status of area committees in councils that had taken advantage of the ability to devolve decision-making powers and lots of other activities to them. I do not know how many authorities have set up effective decision-making area committees over the past 10 or 15 years, but it seems to be a growing number. I am talking not about area consultative committees or discussion forums but about systems of government within alternative arrangements or executive arrangements in which decision-making is devolved to area committees consisting of all the councillors who represent the wards in that area. Such committees typically deal with functions such as development control planning applications, which are not executive functions, and will also have executive functions devolved to them, perhaps quite substantial ones. I understand that the legislation that allows that is Section 18 of the 2000 Act, which states: "““The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for or in connection with enabling an executive of a local authority, or a committee or specified member of such an executive, to arrange for the discharge of any functions which, under executive arrangements, are the responsibility of the executive by an area committee of that authority””." Where area committees work well, they work extremely well. They are a way of devolving decision-making to a town, a neighbourhood or an area of the authority that ties in extremely well with the Government’s present neighbourhood agenda. It is one way to do it. They are not just committees of councillors but may have co-opted members from parish councils or from local organisations such as the chamber of trade, a town centre action group or whatever it happens to be. I speak as a member of an exciting body called the Colne and District Area Committee, which is far and away the most interesting and useful meeting I go to every month. Such bodies involve large numbers of local members of the public who come to meetings not just to listen but to take part and put their views forward, which is absolutely in line with the Government’s agenda. The purpose of the amendment is to probe the Government on whether such area committees will continue to have a right to exist—I assume that the answer is yes—and, if they do, whether they are there as the creatures of the leader of the council only and depend on him devolving powers to them or whether the council as a whole or the executive of the council can incorporate such measures within the constitution of the council so that a leader who does not like what an area is doing cannot over-ride it. It is crucial that area committees have autonomy within their terms of reference. If they do not have that autonomy, their raison d’être disappears because they can be over-ruled from on high. That is a very important question. I beg to move.