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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 40A: 40A: Clause 11, page 8, line 40, at end insert— ““( ) Where a single tier of local government for an area whose boundaries are coterminous with those of an existing county council or closely aligned to them, a new district council for the area shall be established.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, in the amendment I seek to return to the question of continuing authorities. In Committee we had a very brief exchange on the question of authorities that would be formed after restructuring along existing boundaries. That really means county councils turning into unitary authorities covering the county area. The noble Baroness was very concise and clear that those would be wholly new authorities. The problem is that a difference is clearly emerging between the Government's intention, as stated clearly by the noble Baroness, and what is actually happening on the ground. From a number of areas, clear evidence is emerging of what I can describe as a county takeover. I know that my noble friend Lady Maddock will express concern about what is happening in Northumberland, but I am also receiving reports from other parts of the country—Cornwall and so on—about what is happening. Obviously, this is a difficult time and it is a complicated process. In their document setting out their approach to implementation, the Government have stated that the transitional authority will be a county-based authority. I understand why that is happening, but the problem is that counties are seeing that as a platform for launching a complete takeover. There is evidence that they are not giving district council representation as much precedence as the Government would like. I would be very interested to hear from the noble Baroness how she thinks that the Government will respond if clear concerns emerge from local areas that the district authorities, which may have been extremely co-operative in the process, are being frozen out at the implementation stage. Can she also confirm that under the implementation document, which was published fairly recently, the chief executive will be newly appointed but there is no requirement for other officers to be? That is another area where there may well be a complete county takeover, because it is relatively straightforward to subsume a lot of district functions into existing county functions. The tendency would be to keep the same county chief officers and some very good district officers may be lost in the process. If these are to be new authorities with new cultures and practices, it is important that they bring together the best of all the component authorities, rather than just be the continuation of one. Finally, having read carefully through the implementation document, something mystifies me which I hope that the noble Baroness can clear up for me. Paragraph 33 states that the Secretary of State cannot appoint councillors to a transitional authority, but paragraph 35 states that where there is no agreement and the LGA has not been able to broker an agreement, the Secretary of State will make the appointments. I am not clear whether the Secretary of State can or cannot make those appointments and, if so, under exactly what circumstances.