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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

My Lords, we have had an interesting opening debate on this issue. I am grateful to all noble Lords who spoke and for the support—maybe limited support—from the noble Baroness, Lady Scott. The fact that a sunset clause was put into the Bill in the House of Commons indicates how much concern there was that this power would go on interminably. As it is, unless we can get this matter changed, it will go on interminably by invitation because at the moment there is nothing to stop that. Secondly, we are dealing in an Alice in Wonderland world because the legislation before us is being implemented as we speak. As the Minister said, the Secretary of State has already indicated to nine authorities that she is minded to approve their becoming unitaries. I think that agreement has been given to six authorities and further information on the financial aspects has been required from another three. To try to pretend that this is going through in a peaceful and calm way in those nine authorities is not Alice in Wonderland but cloud-cuckoo-land, because where the invitation has been accepted and schemes have been put forward it would be hard to say that the tip of the iceberg is calm; what the hell is going on underneath is very big and people are quite upset about it. Even with these nine authorities, this is not peaceful and non-controversial. It is very controversial. The decision about these will be made by affirmative order, so presumably we will have an opportunity to see these cases again—I hope that we will see them again individually. The Minister nods. I take that as acceptance that each order will be laid individually. That will give us an opportunity—