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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 39: 39: Clause 11, page 8, line 28, leave out paragraph (d) The noble Lord said: My Lords, I return to these amendments as a result of debate in Committee and following a review of what the Minister had to say in Hansard. The Minister said that due to the fact that an electoral review of any new area created would take the Electoral Commission 12 to 24 months to implement, it was necessary for the Secretary of State to have power to determine—along with all the other aspects of local government which she will be able to decide—the electoral arrangements for an area. The noble Baroness did not inform the House of the view of the Electoral Commission on this matter, but it would be very interesting to hear that. I would be most grateful to her if she could let us know whether the Electoral Commission has any comments. The Minister also did not make it clear, even if, as she claimed, this power were used only for transitional periods, when exactly and under which part of the law the electoral arrangements put in place by the Secretary of State would be replaced by those decided by the proper and appropriate body, namely the Electoral Commission. Indeed, Clause 5 does not place any requirement on the Electoral Commission to review or sanction the Government’s decisions. There will be no necessary revision of what are supposed to be transitional arrangements. With all due respect to the Electoral Commission, it seems possible that it could look at the arrangements for a local authority and assume that because the Secretary of State had implemented the proposals they must be workable. That seems a dangerous assumption. With much experience of government from all parties, I am all too well aware of the fact that proposals that come from Secretaries of State may not be workable, so an opportunity would be lost. I hope the Minister will realise that such changes need to be taken seriously and not rushed through, at least not without some consideration of what the proper—I emphasise ““proper””—review procedures should be. I hope that she will be able to clear my mind on these issues so that I do not have to take the matter further. I beg to move.