Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

The amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, would put into place transitional arrangements to allow decisions to be taken on parish reviews or petition cases that have been submitted to the Secretary of State under the provisions of Part II of the Local Government and Rating Act 1997, but on which no decision has been taken or orders made before this chapter comes into effect. Currently, local authorities conduct parish reviews and put their recommendations for the creation, alteration or abolition of parish councils to the Secretary of State and put proposals for electoral arrangements of parish councils to the Electoral Commission. Local government electors can petition for change through their principal council, but can petition for the creation of a parish only in a wholly unparished area. Petitions must be submitted to the Secretary of State, together with the views of the appropriate district council, including whether or not it agrees with the proposals. Decisions are then taken by the Secretary of State and the Electoral Commission, and the necessary implementation orders are made. Chapter 3 of Part 4 devolves decision-making powers to local government, whereby the Secretary of State and the Electoral Commission no longer have a role, as the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, explained. Community governance reviews will be undertaken by principal councils and petitions will trigger a community governance review by the principal authority. The Government recognise, however, that a number of reviews and petitions have been put forward under the provisions of the 1997 Act on which they have yet to take decisions, as the noble Lord pointed out, and are currently considering whether transitional arrangements will be needed to deal with these cases and, if so, what form they should take. For this reason, I ask the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment, because we will certainly give further consideration to the issue of transitional arrangements. The noble Lord has a point and we will take this matter away and look at it. We cannot give a commitment that the parish reviews will have been completed.