Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 211B: 211B: Clause 109, page 70, line 14, at end insert— ““(4) A decision by the Secretary of State under subsection (1) shall be sent to the responsible authority within three months of the Secretary of State’s receipt of the draft local area agreement. (5) If the Secretary of State fails to comply with subsection (4), the draft local area agreement shall be deemed to have been approved.”” The noble Lord said: In speaking to the amendment I shall speak also to Amendment No. 212QA, which is the same amendment applied to revision agreements. It is a slightly cheeky amendment that seeks to set a limit on the time the Secretary of State has to respond to a draft local area agreement or a revision proposal. If the Secretary of State did not respond in that time, it would be deemed to be approved as submitted. Everyone in local government is used to circumstances in which local authorities do their very best to stick to timetables and deadlines and to get things done expeditiously, and then the application gets stuck in a department and you have to wait and wait. There seems to be no comeback to that. What specifications will be set? What will the timescale be for approving a local area agreement or a revision proposal once it has been submitted? An enormous amount of time and effort is going to go into these things. Whether this is a sensible way to do it or not can be debated but, once they have been agreed, people will want to get on with them and put them into practice. If the agreements get stuck in the department for months and do not come out, that will not do anyone any good. I look forward to the Minister’s reply. I beg to move.