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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 2: 2: Clause 2, page 2, line 11, leave out paragraph (c) The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendments Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 25. The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, has Amendment No. 21 in the group. This group of amendments performs one simple function; it rules out the possibility of type C proposals, or those proposals that would create a new local authority, the boundary of which would spill across county boundaries, forcing people to be counted as part of a different county from the one with which they identify. It would make sure that the provision is removed from the Bill. Ancient boundaries and identities hundreds of years old could face extinction under the type C powers. As the Minister said, tidying up is the byword for these powers to ensure that local authorities can be constructed in the way the Government feel would be included in the interests of the local area. The Minister justified the reasonableness of including type C proposals just because other types of proposal were also included: it was a wholesale batch of ideas. We do not think that anything justifies the need for these type C proposals. They have not come about even by the invitations that have been issued so far, although I dare say it is possible that if conclusions were reached on some of those bodies making applications it could come about, and we believe that it should not. There has been no mention of these proposals in the Government’s policy proposal document Councils’ Proposal for Unitary Local Government: An Approach to Implementation, in the Minister’s response in Committee, or in the Minister’s letter sent over the summer. In the complete absence of any substantive justification for the inclusion of type C proposals, I hope that the Minister will see the sense of accepting our amendments. I beg to move.