Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I thank the Minister for her answer. I agree with a point made earlier by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, that scrutiny should be carried out by a team of officers even if one officer is monitoring the others. Members need support at different levels. Scrutiny has improved because of the extra status members have given to it. In our own council, we have an executive member for scrutiny and she spends a lot of time raising the status of scrutiny within the organisation. It might have been better in this Bill if we had raised the member profile as much as the officer profile. I was heartened by what the Minister said because I was concerned that the officer would have the same status as a monitoring officer, Section 151 officer or the head of children’s services. That is clearly not how it should be. I am grateful that she said she would talk to me about that because we need to make it quite clear in the Bill. Otherwise, some people might think that the status was same as that of a Section 151 officer. I am grateful that we will have a conversation about this before we progress the Bill. With that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 153 withdrawn. Amendment 154 not moved. Clause 27 agreed.