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Local and Regional Government

: Sorry, obviously more people have left the island since I last heard about it. One could draw a number of conclusions from my hon. Friend's intervention. I am sure that the Minister will bear that in mind in his concluding remarks. The issue is not just the centralisation of important local government services which local authorities have discharged effectively for decades. Bearing in mind the Government's proposals for local education authorities and the big question mark over the relationship between social services and various health quangos, we can see coming down the track a further siphoning away of local government powers to quangos, to Government zone bodies with appointed Government placepeople, or to Departments. That is the inevitable result of the direction of Government policy. What have we seen as a result of the North East assembly referendum last year? Basically, the Government have demonstrated paralysis; they appear to have no idea. A year on from the outcome of the referendum, there has been no comment and no proper assessment. There is no sign that the Government are prepared to debate the issue. Before this debate, I reminded the Minister that on 11 November 2004, when he was Deputy Leader of the House, I asked him when the Government would recall the Regional Affairs Committee, which was established to fill the vacuum created by the lack of any debate about the regional dimension to Government policy. The Regional Affairs Committee last met 18 months ago. As I recollect, it met to discuss a relatively unimportant matter relating to ““The Northern Way””—I am sure that it was important to the north, but I am talking about Government strategy and Government positioning on the important issues of the day. That Committee, which was set up to undertake an important task, has not met since. I asked the Minister, who was standing in for the Leader of the House on that occasion last November, when the Government would take the opportunity to review their policy following the north-east referendum. He replied:"““The hon. Gentleman makes a reasonable point, which he and other hon. Members have made before. I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House will want seriously to consider that matter on his return, so I thank the hon. Gentleman for the question.””—[Official Report, 11 November 2004; Vol. 426, c. 935.]" The then Leader of the House must have considered it very seriously, because I heard no more about it. We are still waiting to hear whether the Regional Affairs Committee will ever meet again to discuss the issue. Surely this is a time when it should be meeting weekly to hold the Government to account and to review where Government policy is going.