My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for that offer to take this away for further engagement, and for her response. It is a good place to start in our deliberations. I am also grateful to my noble friend Lord Smith for his support, and to the noble Lord, Lord Palmer. A key point for the Minister was that there must be an option for
people to continue to choose locally if that is what they want. A better term in all of this might be “central procurement” rather than “national procurement”. We have another amendment coming up on Wednesday. If we had got it down in time we would have grouped it with this one. It provides a more flexible approach and will, I hope, add to the debate as well.
Just two points: the noble Baroness said that local authorities should be able to choose the arrangements which suit them locally. I just reflect that in the private sector, if companies are looking around for auditors to suit them, it can sometimes ring alarm bells, because it is not always a good sign. It is a bit like shopping for counsel’s opinion—you shop until you get the one that you want—although I do not think that that was the intention. I think that you can distinguish audit services from many other types of services because it is properly regulated nationally because it is an assurance regime—in the private sector, for shareholders; in the public sector, for the public. That distinguishes it from other services which local bodies may want to procure.
I revert to Amendment 13, because I am not sure that I made my point clearly enough on that. Clause 4(1) states:
“The accounts of a relevant authority for a financial year must be audited … in accordance with this Act, and … by an auditor appointed by that authority in accordance with this Act”.
My point was that there will be a period, will there not, where the auditor might have been appointed by the Audit Commission under the outsourcing and bulk contracts that were in place, once the new regulatory regime under the Bill is also in place? There may be transitional provisions which cover all that, but that was the point of challenging that wording. I do not know whether the noble Baroness wants to respond to that before I formally withdraw the amendment, but I give her the opportunity to do so.