Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 242K: 242K: Clause 235, page 164, line 16, leave out ““any member of a local”” and insert ““a member of the”” The noble Baroness said: The amendment seeks to make a minor drafting correction to Clause 235. Before I speak to the amendment, I will say a little about the intention behind the clause. Your Lordships will know by now that there is a consistent policy theme underlying the Bill, which is our desire to enable ordinary members of local authorities to be more effective champions of and advocates for the communities that they represent. This innovative step is another measure in that direction. We want local authorities to be able to make arrangements by which they can enable their ordinary members, the back-bench councillors, to take action that will directly resolve some of the problems in their local areas. One model for such arrangements would be to make small budgets available to councils, coupled with ground rules defining what it may be used for, how it might be administered and so on. However, some authorities might want to consider other approaches. Within limits, we are content to leave it to authorities to set up the arrangements that best suit them. Such an approach is not entirely new because many local authorities already provide budgets for their members to disperse to the community by way of small grants. Staffordshire County Council’s local members’ initiative scheme, for example, is a good and worthwhile measure to provide just that. This clause does something different, and goes further. If authorities so wish, they will now be able to authorise their members to act on behalf of the council, for example to invoke the services of a contractor. We originally conceived this clause as an adjunct to the community call for action. It seemed to us that there were many minor issues of practical concern to communities about which they might rightly look to their councillors for help. The community call for action involves reference to an overview and scrutiny committee, but sometimes that will not be an appropriate response. It will sometimes be a problem such as an unresolved incidence of fly tipping or the need for practical help for a community which wants to clean up the local park. People want to see immediate action from their councillors in such circumstances. This clause enables authorities to set up a framework of delegation for such things. The clause is drafted in general terms to allow arrangements to be made for the discharge of an authority’s function by an individual councillor. It is important that the generality of that part can be constrained by the Secretary of State, who will have to make an Order if so moved, as provided for in Clause 235(4). I shall say more on that in the next group of amendments. A small budget will sometimes be attached, but it does not necessarily involve that. The amendment is necessary because the clause’s original drafting contains a minor defect which Amendment No. 242K will correct. The clause as drafted appears to allow the delegation of one local authority’s functions to a member of another local authority. That was clearly not the policy intention. The amendment makes it clear that such a delegation can only be to one of the authority’s own members. I beg to move.