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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 87: 87: Clause 64, page 37, leave out lines 5 to 7 The noble Baroness said: My Lords, these government amendments set out a number of technical changes. On Monday, the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, kindly indicated that she had a couple of queries on them, so I shall attempt to address those. I have also placed a short note on this matter in the Library of the House. The amendments ensure that the Bill’s provisions work alongside the existing legislation. During our debates in Committee on directly elected executives, I was asked whether members of those executives will be members of the council in terms of voting in the council. Indeed, the question came up again just before the Division. I informed noble Lords that our policy is that they will indeed be full members of the council. The Local Government Act 2000 currently provides for an elected mayor to be treated as a member or councillor if express provision is made along these lines in regulations. However, it has come to our attention that there are inconsistencies in this approach and that amendments are needed both to the 2000 Act and to the Local Government Act 1972 to make the position clear. This group of amendments makes amendments to the Bill and consequential amendments to existing legislation to ensure that it is clear when mayors and members of elected executives should be treated as members of the local authority and when they should not. I will take the amendments out of order, as the key amendment is located in Schedule 4. Amendment No. 226 amends the 1972 Act so that references in that Act to members of the council include mayors and members of the elected executives. This means that, where a council is to vote on normal council business, the mayor or the members of elected executives will be able to vote where those models exist.