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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

Amendment No. 212BA, which is tabled in my name, is a little gem among this large group of amendments. It probes the Minister on a similar issue: the role of the Secretary of State in altering designated targets. The Bill establishes a procedure through which a local authority is required to go if it wishes to amend a target. I should like to give the Minister the opportunity to explain a little more about how this works because the Bill suggests that it is a pretty cumbersome process. If a local authority needed to amend one of these targets, it could be in for a pretty lengthy procedure. Will she also say how this will be done? Will it be done by the Secretary of State in the form of a government regional office? Will there be any indication of how long it might take to alter one of these targets as I can see that it might end up sitting on someone’s desk for quite some time? Will she also confirm that these provisions apply to the national targets rather than to the national and the locally agreed ones?