Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]

I am very sorry. I see that the hon. Gentleman is in the House at the moment, and it is therefore normally acceptable to mention what is in the public domain. It is in the public domain that the hon. Gentleman said that, and I therefore think it reasonable to mention it, as he is in the House. I would not have mentioned had he not been here. For Suffolk county council to teach the people of Suffolk about the democratic methods of the strategic health authority would be impossible. Why do we have a Bill before us that it is impossible to carry through? What happens if I bring a case against Suffolk county council for not informing me of the democratic arrangements of the strategic health authority? The council has an absolute answer in law—it can say that it has no democratic system. It can say that of a series of other authorities listed in the subsection. Primary care trusts are among those authorities listed—no primary care trust has any democratic relationship with the public at all. What could the council say about a local probation board or a probation trust? What could it say about an integrated transport authority, a waste disposal authority, a joint waste disposal authority or a national park authority, which is specifically set up to avoid local people running that part of the country? The Minister for Local Government will have to make a very good case to explain how, in a Government Bill, a series of statements are made to ask authorities to carry out duties that are impossible. I have sat in this House for more than 30 years and I have to say to the Secretary of State that I have never come across a Bill in all those years that lays on authorities duties that are of their nature impossible. I hope she will come to this House and explain how a county council can give to the public information about the democratic accountability of a strategic health authority. Those of us who now know that we will be subject to decisions without any kind of discussion—without the county council being allowed even to use the strategic committee to object, because the Government chose to pass those arrangements at a time when there was purdah—will want to ask the Secretary of State how she dares to put in the Bill something that it is impossible to carry through. When the Government introduce a Bill, I suggest that the House always looks at their words particularly carefully. If they use the words "local democracy", they mean that the measure is neither local nor democratic. It is rather like the climate change levy, which does nothing to combat climate change, although anyone who opposes it is supposed to be insufficiently enthusiastic about fighting climate change. Similarly, if anyone opposes this local democracy Bill, the Government will say that they are not keen on local democracy. In fact, anyone who votes for the Bill is not keen on local democracy, for it has nothing to do with local democracy, but a great deal to do with reinforcing the removal of democratic control over local decisions and laying impossible demands upon local authorities. I look forward to hearing the Minister for Local Government's explanation of would he would say if he were the leader of my county council and he was asked the simple question, "What is the democratic arrangement by which the strategic health authority operates?"