My Lords, in moving Amendment 16 I will speak to the others in this group. Amendments 21 to 24 seek to insert new provisions into new Section 107F to clarify how the council tax requirement is calculated and precept issued in respect of mayoral combined authorities.
Amendment 21 requires that issuing the precept will always be a function of the mayor acting on behalf of the combined authority. Amendments 22 and 23 ensure that the Secretary of State can by order modify the application of Chapter 4 or 4ZA of Part 1 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, where that chapter is being applied to a mayoral combined authority, in order to provide for the specified outcomes in respect of calculation of the council tax requirement and issuing of the precept.
Amendment 24 extends the Secretary of State’s powers to make provision in an order in respect of how the council tax requirement will be calculated where the functions of a mayor include PCC functions. In these cases, we will require there to be separate components of the council tax requirement in respect of the mayor’s PCC functions and the mayor’s general functions. Amendment 24 also requires that the calculation of the component of the council tax requirement that relates to PCC functions is to be regarded as a PCC function exercisable only by the mayor.
By requiring that there is a separate component of the precept for PCC functions, we will ensure that the council tax referendum criteria can be applied separately to the council tax element of police funding, thereby ensuring that government has full flexibility to apply distinct council tax referendum principles for the police component of a mayoral combined authority precept in the same way it currently does for all other PCCs across England and Wales. This would allow a mayoral combined authority the flexibility to hold a council tax referendum on the level of funding for the police specifically. These amendments will ensure broad consistency with the PCC model, in that the mayor will calculate the element of the council tax requirement that relates to PCC functions as a PCC does now, and this calculation will be subject to challenge by the police scrutiny panel. Amendments 16, 17 and 18 are consequential amendments to new Schedule 5C to reflect these changes.
Amendment 16 would ensure that only the mayor can calculate the component of the council tax requirement which relates to policing and that this function cannot therefore be delegated to a deputy PCC mayor or any other individual. This is consistent with the PCC model whereby the PCC cannot delegate such responsibilities to a deputy. Amendments 17 and 18 clarify that the Secretary of State’s power to provide directions to a mayor acting on behalf of a mayoral combined authority in respect of police budgets applies only to the calculation of the component of the precept relating to PCC functions, and not to the component relating to general functions. With this explanation, I beg to move.
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