Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I am grateful not only to my noble friend for what she just said—with which I agree—but to the Minister for explaining this in such detail. We will want to go away and read carefully what she said, with Hansard as our bedtime reading over the coming weekend. That is a genuine thanks for that information. This clause makes provision for both guidance and regulations. The point I was trying to make is not that councils with some appointed councillors should not have authoritative guidance but that they should have something stronger than that—it should be clearly set out in regulations. What we are doing here is interfering—I use the term in a non-pejorative sense—with the democratic system. The Government are saying that some members of local authorities will not have to be elected in future but can be appointed by the local authority in the way that aldermen used to be appointed. Clearly no one wants to go back to aldermen—as I said, the inclusion was tongue in cheek. It is an odd suggestion and a little bit of ridicule sometimes does no harm. Should it be regulations or authoritative guidance? At the moment it is not clear because both are there. I think that it should be clear. I welcome the information that it might be only one or two people as that alleviates some fears that the number might be substantial. As was pointed out when the House of Commons discussed this, the great majority of parish councils say that they are non-political, and they are. However, some parish councils, especially the larger ones, are very party political indeed. But that reflects local circumstances and is up to the voters to decide. The concern was that a party with a very narrow majority could bolster its majority by appointing a lot of people. If it is only one or two then the fear is perhaps a little less. I welcome the year-to-year arrangement. I do not think that the Minister responded to my suggestion that it should be subject to confirmation by the annual parish meeting but perhaps the Government will think about that. In a future group we will discuss the existence and the role of parish meetings, which are quite different from anything else in the local government system. There was a very interesting suggestion that very young people—those under 18—might be involved in this way. We will certainly want to go away and think about that. I thank the Minister very much for her very comprehensive reply and beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 198 to 201 not moved.] Clause 78 agreed to. Clause 79 [Extension of power to certain parish councils]: