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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I agree with the noble Baroness that this is an important additional power for the Audit Commission to have. Essentially, our initial view was that there was a potential for conflict of interest, with an inspectorate offering improvement advice, and a value-for-money issue, with different publicly funded bodies competing for the same work. However, as the noble Baroness said, we listened to the representations made during the passage of the Bill and we discussed the matter at length with the commission. We were reassured when we did so that there had never been any accusation of conflict of interest and that there genuinely were advantages for local authorities in having a wider choice of improvement support agencies. We concluded that the commission should continue to be able to respond to requests for help using the new advice and assistance power. Clause 155 repeals Sections 35 and 35A of the Audit Commission Act 1998, which allow the commission to undertake fee-paid improvement studies of certain bodies at their request, or in some cases at the request of the Mayor of London. The clause is fine, as it seeks to tidy up legislation, since the power is now obsolete, having been superseded by the new power for the commission to provide advice and assistance to a wide range of public authorities, as set out in paragraph 9 of Schedule 12. There is a potential overlap if that power were to remain. The new powers are much broader than the powers in Sections 35 and 35A of the Audit Commission Act 1998 and they enable the Audit Commission to advise any public bodies, including those outside the UK. We agreed to reconsider our policy and we have done so. We now consider that English local authorities should be able to take advantage of this service and they will be able to do so. Those changes have been made with the agreement of the Audit Commission.