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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 218: 218: Clause 125, page 84, line 7, leave out from beginning to ““a”” The noble Baroness said: Amendments Nos. 218 to 223 are all on the same issue, and the Minister will have anticipated that they are at the behest of the Local Government Association. The amendments would remove the need for regulations to enable district councils in two-tier areas to set up joint overview and scrutiny committees with the county, or to report independently on local improvement targets. The Government added new clauses on Report stage in the Commons to allow district councils to set up joint committees with county councils in their area, to review local area agreements and to enable district scrutiny committees to report independently on local improvement targets. The opportunity depends on the Secretary of State making the appropriate regulations to enable it to go forward. I do not know whether that was the quickest way that the Government could get this into legislation, to provide for regulations rather than spelling things out more fully, but the Local Government Association is concerned that the matter has not quite been achieved yet and that the district should not need to wait for secondary legislation or be dependent on secondary legislation to achieve that right. I beg to move.