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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 120: 120: After Clause 67, insert the following new Clause— ““Membership of mayor and cabinet executive (1) The Local Government Act 2000 (c. 22) is amended as follows. (2) In section 11(8) and (9) for ““10”” each time it appears substitute ““15 or a number equal to 25 per cent of the total membership (including the elected executive if any) of the local authority, whichever is the smaller””.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, Amendment No. 120 is about the size of the membership of a cabinet executive, which was a matter raised by my noble friend Lord Greaves at the previous stage. My noble friend Lord Tyler came in on it as well, arguing that the size of an executive should be a matter of some choice. We have accepted that there may be limits on the choice, but for a large local authority or one that covers a very wide geographical area, the maximum of 10 may be inappropriate. It occurred to me after the debate that there is the issue of allowing for resignations and other casualties. The issue of a parallel limit as a proportion of the total membership of the council might be a way of dealing with that. I hope that this is a theoretical situation in connection with directly elected executives, but on the basis on which the noble Baroness moved an amendment earlier, perhaps I had better not lose the opportunity of raising the issue again. I beg to move.