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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, and, indeed, I picked up from her remarks that a LINk can have a legal identity in that sense. What I was trying to get closer to is whether it has a statutory identity. I confess I was puzzled by some of the other things the noble Baroness said. She said that if we try to include functions in the Bill, the language of functions would mean that whatever we included in the Bill would be mandatory. I am not sure that that is a show-stopper. If we believe that these bodies should have functions then why should we not say so? We need to reflect carefully on that. The point about accountability and powers is a key part of all this. If an organisation has no powers conferred on it in statute, and not even any direct contractual obligations, it is very difficult to see how it can be part of a chain of accountability for local public services. It will amount to being no more than a talking shop. That is what some of us suspect LINks may turn into. A suspicious mind before this debate might have believed that that is what the Government were hoping to set up by means of the Bill, but I take the noble Baroness’s word that it is not. The Minister has indicated that the department has been in receipt of representations about the shortcomings of patients’ forums. I do not doubt that, but I am tempted to reflect on the question of whose legislation it was that set up the forums in the first place. I think that we all know the answer to that. It is time to move on after nearly 45 minutes, and I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 238KBB not moved.]