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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I think that I can give the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, some support and good news, which he can pass on to the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield. When we consulted in January on the general principle of a central code, the overwhelming response from local authorities was that a national code was still important, because there needs to be consistency in how certain things—particularly the areas around political usage and types of information—are treated. So there is still continuing recognition of the value of that. However, it was also clear that there is concern about the content, style and ownership of the code, and I am very happy to indicate that we are now going to consult not only on the content of the code but on whether it is necessary for the code to be issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government, or whether it could be a matter for local government representatives. We will maintain consistency through a national code, while thinking about what really needs to be in the code, exploring suggestions on the content of the code and on how it might be updated from the world of local government and the stakeholders, for the reasons given by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith. We will think about how it could be simplified or clarified to support new roles such as advocacy, for example. We are ready to consult local authorities before issuing any new code, and about what form that might take. We are very keen to address robustly the challenge of misinformation—and clearly that will be one very important thing that we want to get right. In this context the help of the LGA will be invaluable as we come to frame a new code.