Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 209CC: 209CC: Clause 108, page 69, line 34, leave out sub- paragraph (ii) The noble Baroness said: Amendment No. 212 is grouped with this amendment, which is to take out the requirement for a responsible local authority to have regard to the Secretary of State’s guidance. In the world in which we live there will be guidance, so I am not expecting this amendment to be agreed to. It was brought to my attention—and no doubt that of other noble Lords—by the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities, which have raised questions about the fact that all that is referred to is the community strategy and the Secretary of State’s guidance. They say that they had understood from the White Paper that there was to be, "““a mutual duty on partners to have regard to each others’ plans””, " and are concerned that other statutory plans, such as the local policing plan, which, they say, "““synthesises national and local policing requirements””," will not have the same weight given to them. There is, of course, the knock-on effect of the distribution of targets, although we have heard a good deal about flexibility of local targets. ACPO and APA are concerned about obliging partners to have regard to the Secretary of State’s guidance. They say that the relevant Secretary of State in this context will be the Home Secretary, and they believe that there is a risk of confusion and conflict—they would probably feel if they sat through some of these proceedings that there might be a greater risk of confusion than that identified when they wrote this briefing—if government departments are not better co-ordinated than hitherto. The associations say that, "““policing already has perfectly adequate structures and mechanisms in place to guide partnership working””," and that there is a risk of duplication likely to lead to greater confusion. One might sum this up in a more general way by asking the Minister why there has to be particular regard to the community strategy and what status the other strategies, some of which I have mentioned, have in the programme of drawing up and submitting a draft local area agreement. I beg to move.