Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I support the points that my noble friend Lord Greaves has just made but from the perspective of a different part of the country. In Cornwall we have a very similar situation to the one he described—the LSPs are inevitably complex because of the number of participants. However, there are some general points here that need to be carefully addressed and analysed. I heard the Minister refer just now to a ““sustainable and flexible framework””. The difficulty that we are all faced with is that by developing a flexible framework you can leave some very loose ends. The dilemma constantly facing Ministers when they are trying to provide the right framework for local government is that they cannot be so directive that they are producing effectively a corset of restrictions while at the same time trying to insist on a level of delivery and consultation that is sufficiently flexible to enable the local authority to use its own intelligence—which we hope it will always have—to deal with local circumstances. All these amendments form a pattern. We are trying to devise a ““sufficiently flexible framework””, to use the Minister's own expression, while not being so directive that we do not allow changing circumstances to provide changing solutions over the years. I am reminded of the old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So often in this building, in both Houses, we try to devise a system that is not only flexible but also tries to provide a clear intention on the legislature’s behalf so that those responsible for delivery can do their very best to meet the required targets. Every time I come into this Committee I am ever more fearful of the legislation’s consequences, because it is an extremely complex Bill. I am very glad that I am no longer, and have not been for many years now, a local authority member let alone a local authority officer. I can see that a new generation of local authority officers will have to interpret this legislation in order to meet the requirements that Parliament has laid on them. In this Bill we are not getting on the right side of the balance, and I accept that it is a very difficult balance, between providing a flexible framework and ensuring that the consultees in this case are as widely drawn as possible, while recognising the facts at local level. I hope that the Minister can reassure us that that balance has been recognised and that the Bill incorporates it.