Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I am from Yorkshire so I will be fine. This has been a helpful debate in which important points have been raised. I take on board the comment of the noble Lord, Lord Tope: this is not an academic argument, but a real issue. I take the point sincerely. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, has addressed the important issue of geographical boundaries in relation to the duties that we are placing on local authorities. I will not go into detail about the position in Yorkshire because of conflicts of interest. I live in Bradford, I worked in Keighley as a social worker and last year I opened a very good new mental health ward in Airedale hospital. I drive regularly through all the villages and towns that the noble Lord talked about, so I understand where he is coming from. These amendments would require local authorities to provide information on the functions and governance arrangements of schools, FE colleges or health services which are not within the local authority area’s boundaries but which are used by the council’s residents. I will recap on what we are trying to do. In Clause 2, we seek to place a duty on local authorities to promote the functions and democratic arrangements of the public bodies—that is, the connected authorities—that are responsible for the provision of public services in the area. It is important to remind ourselves that this duty is about promoting understanding of the democratic arrangements for public bodies set up to be influenced by citizens either directly or indirectly or run by lay citizen representatives. It is not designed to cover all conceivable information about public services in general. In practice, democratic arrangements have boundaries. Although citizens may on occasion use the services of a neighbouring council, they cannot vote in the elections for that neighbouring council. As the noble Lord clearly stated, a number of core services are provided from outside any given local authority area. This is true for schools and certainly for FE colleges, and it is also increasingly true for health services. But we do not believe that this is a reasonable or practical requirement to place on local authorities. I will begin by setting out what we intend to include and I will then address each amendment. As my noble friend the Minister outlined earlier, we are clearly aware of, and do not take lightly, the burdens on local authorities when they have new duties placed on them. We place such duties on them only where we truly believe that it is necessary and, in this case, we believe that it is. If we are to embed promotion of democracy deep into the culture of local authorities, we want to ensure that local people are being made fully aware of how they can get involved in shaping local services. Inevitably, there is a fine balance to be made in addressing the needs of the community and minimising the burden on local authorities. In doing this, we are also very mindful that we do not want to increase duplication of information where that is not necessary. We are asking all local authorities to promote democratic understanding in this way. We do not only mean providing information by way of newsletters or leaflets and on websites, although that is crucial. We want local authorities to embed the promotion of democracy within their work. We want local authorities to work with schools, colleges and different communities in their areas to raise awareness and understanding of how they shape services. That may be through inviting schoolchildren to the town hall, shadowing schemes or working with people from a particularly underrepresented community to help to develop their skills and confidence to get involved in civic life. We are providing new money to cover this duty but this is based on working with local people. The amendments would increase the responsibility on local authorities and duplicate information. Should we require Manchester to promote the democratic arrangements and health service in Salford, Bury, Trafford, Rochdale, Bolton and so on? The noble Lord provided the example of Airedale hospital. The increased responsibility would be a significant burden on local authorities. The noble Lord, Lord Tope, talked about the situation in London. In London, over one-fifth of children travel out of their home borough to attend school. When would a London borough stop in providing information on secondary schools? This is by no means unique to London, as the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, said when he talked about the excellent South Craven secondary school. It would mean that many authorities would have to identify and promote the democratic arrangements of services that are located outside their area, even though the services would also be promoted where they are located as part of the duty. Of course, people with an interest in these services, whether in or out of the authority in which they live, are entitled to information about their functions and democratic arrangements. This information would be available in the school, college or hospital itself. When you are in a foundation trust, you are actively going out of the borough to increase your membership and the membership of the governance board. Information would also be available from the council where the service is located. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, will appreciate that defining ““significant”” is not straightforward. To go back to our definition of local people, councils will be expected to promote this duty to people who study in their area anyway. We expect local authorities to take a sensible approach and to consider how imaginatively to promote democratic understanding, as we have set out in their duties, in a way that is relevant to their local communities. I take on board what the noble Lord said about the sense of what is meant here; that is crucial. We will of course work with the LGA to ensure that we cover those issues and points in guidance. The debate today will help to develop that guidance, but the amendment would add nothing to the Bill.