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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

My Lords, we would no doubt say ““More’s the pity””. I have always wanted to belong to a Maoist revolutionary Government—I have tried to keep this fact from the Prime Minister—and was intrigued by the presentation of the current Government in that form. Essentially, however, we are having an important debate, and I am grateful for the contribution from my noble friends Lord Smith and Lord Graham and their powerful accounts of why size is not everything and should be limited to function. The amendment means that councillors would have the freedom to increase the size of their executive up to 15, or one quarter of the membership of the council, whichever is smaller. When we debated this in Committee—he returned to this argument a moment ago—the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, told us that we were trying to squeeze people into a limited number of models, and that an amendment of this sort might enable single-party executives to involve opposition groups. That seemed to me then, and seems to me now as he restates it, to threaten to reintroduce the committee system by the back door. I agree with the noble Lord on the clear need to respect and reflect diversity. However, I would argue that there are a number of different ways that councils can do that without expanding the executive: how they choose to operate their executive arrangements, for example; developing their area or advisory committees, which I know the noble Lord applauds with good reason. They are so effective and play a key role in councils. We will not have to look to the single instrument of the council size and membership itself to do this important job. There is a lot of evidence for the benefits of having a small, coherent leadership group at the heart of the council. I gave that evidence in Committee, and have not heard a case challenging it. I remind noble Lords that The New Council Constitutions: The Outcomes and Impact of the Local Government Act 2000 report I quoted earlier supports Parliament’s judgment in the Act that executives of a size up to 10 are right for delivering visible and effective leadership. We stand on a point of evidence and it is supported by experience, certainly by the powerful cases of my noble friends. I regret that we cannot accept the amendments. They would put back the clock. Rather than, as the noble Lord described it, ““messing about””, the Government are simply seeking to build on what the 2000 Act has delivered, not to unpick it. I hope the noble Baroness will feel able to withdraw her amendment.