Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I support the noble Lord, Lord Tope, in his opposition to Clause 3 standing part of the Bill. I had not added my name to his on the Marshalled List, as I had hoped that my earlier amendment, which altered the duty on local authorities to promote understanding of the functions of these bodies, might have been seen as a kind of halfway house. However, I was denounced from the government Benches as being destructive. We on these Benches have never been opposed to the spread of information about services, but we do oppose the imposition of a duty on local authorities to promote such information. That duty becomes even harder to justify when the services in question have only a tenuous link to the functions of the local authorities. I am interested in understanding today the similarities between the three bodies listed in the clause, other than the obvious one that they relate to criminal justice. What is the reason for including these bodies, and what is the link between them and the local authority? Is it a link of control, authority or finances? Why should local authorities promote these organisations or their democratic arrangements? The purpose of the Bill is to promote involvement. How far is public involvement allowed in each of these three bodies? How far can members of the local community get involved in them? Is the extent similar for all three bodies? Again, to return to the very basic point that I made earlier today, does the Minister accept that taking responsibility from individual organisations that rely on public involvement to demonstrate transparency and giving it to local authorities is disempowering local communities? The best way to empower local communities and get them involved is to ensure that there is a direct link between them and the organisation in which they seek to get involved, rather than having a third organisation, such as a local authority, on whom a statutory duty is imposed to promote that organisation’s role.