Public Bodies Bill [HL]

My Lords, this Bill has already been on a long journey, and has changed a great deal during that journey. Since its Second Reading in this House in November last year, it has been subjected to rigorous challenge and scrutiny through Committee and Report before being sent to the Commons. The Government listened carefully and adjusted the proposals in the Bill. We continued to consult, listen and adjust as it moved through the Commons. Most of the amendments to which I am speaking were introduced by the Government in the Commons as part of the continuing process of scrutiny and modification. It is a pleasure to follow in the footsteps of my noble friend Lord Taylor, who did such an excellent and widely praised job of negotiating this Bill through its earlier stages in this House. The Public Bodies Bill was notable during its time in this House not least for such contentious issues as Schedule 7 and the provisions on forests. However, it can and should be remembered as an outstanding example of the way in which the breadth and depth of experience in your Lordships’ House was used to improve a piece of legislation. I appreciate that this is a large group of amendments and that many noble Lords will be keen to move on to debate other issues in the Bill, and I will therefore set out as succinctly as I can the issues in these 46 amendments. Amendments 1, 30, 31, 35 add co-operative and community benefit societies, as well as charitable incorporated organisations, to the definition of ““eligible person”” to which the functions or property of a body or office-holder can be transferred under the general order-making powers of the Bill. These amendments were welcomed by all sides in the Commons. I hope that they will also be welcomed here. Amendments 2 and 3 require Ministers to secure Treasury consent before making an order that modifies an existing funding arrangement. This is in accordance with normal practice across the whole range of government. Amendments 5 and 14 provide for there to be no requirement for a Minister or Welsh Minister to consult a body or office that is defunct. This does not exempt the Government from the need to consult—that is, to consult persons whom the Minister considers to be substantially affected and persons deemed to be appropriate—because the rest of the provisions in Clause 10 and 19 continue to apply. These amendments simply allow the Minister to lay a draft order without having to attempt to consult a body that has no members. Amendment 21 adds stamp duty land tax to the list of relevant taxes in Clause 26. That clause limits the taxes that can be varied under the Bill to a list of relevant taxes. Stamp duty land tax was previously excluded from the list because there is an existing stamp duty tax relief for statutory reorganisations involving public bodies included in Section 66 of the Finance Act 2003. However, this relief does not cater for transfers to a non-statutory body for consideration. Stamp duty land tax should therefore now be included within the list of relevant taxes because there is a possibility that some transfer schemes will include land transactions falling outside the current stamp duty relief. Amendments 22, 23, 29 and 59 correct a technical issue relating to cross-border powers affecting the Environment Agency, which is currently an England and Wales body, and supersede and replace current provisions in the Bill relating to the delegation of Welsh environmental functions, with some minor revisions. The Bill allows Welsh environmental bodies to delegate devolved functions to the Environment Agency but, without these amendments, it would not allow the Environment Agency in its turn to delegate non-devolved functions to Welsh environmental bodies, including the new Welsh environmental body. This would mean that the current flexible arrangements under which the Environment Agency can delegate to its Welsh counterparts could not continue. This could pose significant problems in an emergency such as flooding in the border area or in areas such as management of the Dee estuary. These amendments ensure that the agency could delegate non-devolved functions to the new Welsh environmental body. Amendments 24, 25 and 32 to 34 allow the Government to reduce the cost of back-office functions, such as HR, IT and payment processing, through rationalisation and delivering economies of scale in environmental bodies. Amendment 24 provides a clear, specific power so that the Environment Agency, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Natural England, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Marine Management Organisation and internal drainage boards could, with certainty, provide any back-office function to other bodies carrying out public functions. This would allow a shared-services model to be developed across the Defra network and with other government departments. Amendments 26, 39, 42, 45, 48, 58 and 60 relate to the abolition of the regional development agencies. I acknowledge that many noble Lords, particularly those on the opposition Benches, have been staunch supporters of the RDAs. I commend them for the thoughtful and insightful contributions they have made on this issue in previous debates. In March, this House supported the principle of abolition by approving the inclusion of RDAs in Schedule 1 before the Bill was passed to the Commons. Amendment 26 removes the RDAs from Schedule 1 and provides for their abolition in a new clause in the Bill dealing with RDAs. The effect of this amendment is that the abolition of the RDAs will no longer be progressed using the order-making power in Clause 1. Instead, the new clause contains its own limited order-making powers and procedure. Amendments 39, 42, 45, 48 and 60 make provision for the commencement of the new provisions relating to RDA abolition. They also amend the Long Title of the Bill. Amendment 58 inserts a new schedule, which deals with consequential repeals to references to RDAs in other Acts. Amendments 27, 52 and 61 relate to the Welsh language television channel S4C. The Government are committed to a strong and independent Welsh language TV service, supported by sustainable funding. These amendments put that commitment into legislation and, for the first time, set in statute a requirement that S4C receives sufficient funding for it to fulfil its statutory and vital role as an independent Welsh language broadcaster. Funding changes to S4C have already been implemented from this year, with the agreement of S4C. The Government’s amendments do not change the policy announced last year on the funding of S4C; they simply represent a change to the legislative mechanism by which changes will be made. The proposed funding arrangements are reinforced by the proposed S4C-BBC partnership arrangements which were announced in October. The announcement followed extensive discussions between S4C, the BBC and DCMS, and represents, we feel, a great outcome for Welsh language broadcasting. Amendments 28, 37, 38 and 62 address an inconsistency in relation to the trading powers of a number of cultural institutions. All institutions covered by the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 and the National Heritage Act 1983 can create companies to carry out some restricted functions such as producing publications or provide catering services at their own premises. However, only those institutions set up by the 1992 Act—these include the Tate Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Gallery—can enter into shared services contracts and thereby supply services to other organisations, where this is incidental to the institution’s functions. These amendments will enable the institutions covered by the 1983 Act—the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England—to discharge their functions equally and competitively. Amendments 40 and 41 make simple changes to the commencement provision set out in Clause 31 to prevent an unnecessary delay in Parliament undertaking the important process of scrutinising draft orders. Amendment 41 provides that Clauses 10 and 11 would come into force on the day on which this Bill is passed, which would allow Ministers to lay draft orders for parliamentary scrutiny immediately after Royal Assent. While Ministers will be able to lay draft orders and start scrutiny immediately, they will not have the power to actually make changes using the core powers in Clauses 1 to 5 until two months have elapsed. This amendment also clarifies that other provisions contained in the final part of the Bill, such as the interpretation provisions, will also come into force immediately. Amendment 44 would update a reference to the Football Licensing Authority in Schedule 1 of the Public Bodies Bill to reflect the commencement of the Sports Grounds Safety Authority Act 2011. Amendment 46 inserts the public lending right in Schedule 1, enabling the abolition of this body and the transfer of its function to an eligible person. I would like to assure noble Lords that the right of authors to receive payment when their books are borrowed from public libraries—and I declare a minor interest in this respect myself—will continue to be protected in law, as will the statutory function of distributing the PLR fund to authors when this function is eventually transferred to another existing body. Which body takes over this function is subject to consultation at present, but it is our intention that PLR payments will still be administered by a body operating at arm’s length from government, and most probably also some distance from London. Amendments 55 and 57 relate to Dover Harbour Board. These amendments provide an alternative route for transferring the functions and assets of Dover Harbour Board to a community body. These amendments are not Government amendments, and the Government did not seek them. Nevertheless, in recognition of the Committee debate in the other place and because the spirit of the amendments is in line with the principles of the big society, we have decided to accept their inclusion in the Bill. However, it is important to make clear that once included in the Public Bodies Bill, these provisions will not supersede, or otherwise affect, existing powers in relation to Dover Harbour Board, such as those available under the Ports Act 1991 and the Harbours Act 1964. These provisions were proposed as an additional power available to Ministers, and the Government propose to accept them on that basis. Finally, Amendments 4, 6 to 13, 15 to 20, 36 and 43 make minor and technical changes that simply clarify and improve certain aspects of the Bill. I hope that that provides sufficient explanation and I beg to move.