Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I want to return to the issue of academy schools, which I have not thought about much before. I am aware that it is being raised simply as an example. However, if the purpose of the Bill is to promote better understanding among local people, surely it should apply to academy schools—a relatively new and not yet very well understood concept. Why is this not to be explained? The Minister has talked about this and other examples and has said several times that nothing in the Bill prevents a local authority from doing this if it so wishes. The reality is that good local authorities are probably already doing most of what is in the Bill; as I said on Second Reading, most of this legislation is primarily intended for less good local authorities. I am being very polite. It is for those local authorities that are not as good as we would wish. We are perhaps already in a situation where a good local authority with an academy school may be doing these things. Surely the purpose of the Bill is to encourage those less good authorities to be doing them as well. If that is the case, why are academy schools not on the list?