Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 209D: 209D: Clause 108, page 69, line 34, at end insert ““; and ( ) the comprehensive area assessment which shall be phased in to coincide with the commencement date for this Chapter.”” The noble Lord said: The Bill provides for the comprehensive area assessment to come into effect a year after the new local area agreement is initiated. That is surely counterproductive, as the point of the comprehensive area assessment is to provide a performance framework to measure progress of the LAAs. There has already been much talk about the need for local area agreements to tear free of the bureaucracy that has impeded their success thus far and to focus on delivering tangible benefits to communities. That intention is welcome. I am sure that it is commended unanimously across the Committee this evening. Although the design of the new LAA may be conducive to that goal, an obsolete, heavy-handed performance framework is likely to be cumbersome and impede its successful implementation. We agree with the LGA’s contention that there will be significant mutually reinforcing advantages in ensuring that the CAA is introduced alongside the LAA in 2008—none more so than the ability to measure the progress of the LAA, which, as the Bill stands, will be introduced the year before. I also declare an interest in that Essex County Council is one of the very last councils to have a CPA, right at the end of 2008. We are offering to be a pilot for the CAA. It makes absolute sense to be a pilot for the CAA rather than being the very last on the CPA. Therefore, I hope that the Minister will have some sympathy for Essex County Council and for the general thrust of the amendment to introduce the new CAA, which I think we would all welcome alongside the LAA. I beg to move.