Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

This amendment relates to the sanctions available to the Adjudication Panel for England. Clause 196 provides that the Secretary of State may make regulations in respect of the referral of a case by a standards committee to the adjudication panel where the committee considers that the sanction available to it of a maximum three months suspension from office would be insufficient. In such circumstances, the committee will be able to refer the case to the adjudication panel, which can determine a sanction of up to five years disqualification from office. Amendment No. 238ZG provides that the sanctions to be made available to adjudication panel members when a case is referred to it by the standards committee may include only the limited sanctions under Section 78A(4) to (6) of the Local Government Act 2000. That would unnecessarily reduce the range of sanctions to apply for cases referred by standards committees. The sort of things that would be excluded, for example, would be the option to take no action or the option to take action other than suspension or disqualification from office; or a requirement to undertake training or to seek mediation or to apologise. A whole range of things come into this area before one moves into the much heavier arena of disqualification. That would be the effect of the amendment. I hope that provides clarification.