Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I understand that. I also understand that the opposition sometimes comes from the back benches of the controlling group, as we saw earlier today in the House. It happens on councils, too, and quite rightly so, because if scrutiny is to work, it has to happen. However, the noble Lord’s is a big-council view, because only big councils will be able to afford to employ those extra officers. For smaller councils that are desperately trying to cut back the number of staff and make 3 per cent cashable savings every year there is simply not the resource to do that. So we come back to the dilemma to which my noble friend referred: to what extent under the new arrangements are officers working for the controlling group or groups the people who have executive responsibility for the council and to what extent are they working for the whole council? It used to be very clear but it is not clear now. Even if it is a muddle, it should be set out so we all understand it and how it will work. But it ought not to be a muddle. As an ordinary back-bench councillor you used to be able to get confidential help and advice from officers. If you had casework in your ward, on most councils you could do that confidentially through the appropriate officers. Nowadays, more often than not it will be passed on to the executive member or whoever has executive authority for that area. In many councils you have to deal with the executive member and not with a member of staff, who may be an opposition member in your own area. For political reasons and reasons to do with relationships, you do not want to deal with them—you want to deal with an impartial civil servant. In many cases, you cannot do that any more. That is a real problem. Political groups used always to be able to get confidential advice from officers. You cannot always do that now. If you want it, you often have to argue hard and negotiate for it. Again, these are more problems for big and big political urban councils than for smaller councils—but they are real problems. There has to be an acceptance within councils that opposition and what oppositions do—as well as scrutiny from the back benches of the ruling party—is necessary and honourable. It is part of politics and makes the council better in the long run. That understanding is not there. There were councils in the past for which it was never there—but there are now problems.