Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

The noble Lord, Lord Tope, is rightly approaching the same point as I raised earlier in the week, albeit from a slightly different angle. I hope that the Minister will be able to take on board his constructive criticism. Amendment 27 would add a rather scathing caveat in relation to the democratic arrangements of connected authorities. The noble Lord is right to point out that these connected authorities may not have any democratic arrangements, which would make it difficult for the principal authority to promote those arrangements as democratic. I can think of only one justification for the provision, which is, as I suggested before, that the Minister would like the undemocratic nature of these unelected and unaccountable bodies to be fully exposed. If that is not the case, the duty in Clause 2 is nothing more than words. It allows the Government to claim that they are promoting democracy when they are doing nothing very much at all. Amendment 29 is a sensible consideration. If the connected authorities are already promoting understanding of their functions and arrangements, there is little point in that work being duplicated by a principal authority. I hope that the Minister will accept that many, if not all, of the amendments today are an attempt to sort out the legislation into a workable and meaningful form. I hope that she will be able to take the Bill away and consider these provisions in that positive light.