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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 1: 1: Clause 3, page 3, line 2, leave out subsection (1) and insert— ““(1) Neither a direction nor an invitation under section 2 may be issued or given after 25 January 2008.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, the Minister has spoken much during the debates about the powers in the Bill being used to ““make sense”” of local government in the future. She has argued that the power to invite authorities to become unitaries must remain in the Bill even though the Government have currently—I emphasise ““currently””—no plans for a future rolling programme of restructuring. She has said that the power to invite is still needed to ““make sense”” of existing programmes for restructuring. This is all very well and good and there will be nothing to prevent her department issuing invitations that are still needed under current schemes, such as Bedford, prior to January 2008. Yet there is more to the extent of this power than necessarily meets the eye. The Minister noted that in the future the Boundary Commission could decide to change a boundary to such an extent that an existing two-tier system had to be incorporated into another existing unitary council. In theory, this would not count as the formation of a new unitary council, but the reality would be that yet another two-tier system could be swallowed up, this time without the need for a full consultation but simply as a tidying up exercise. Clause 3(3) and (6) imply that once an invitation is issued, the expectation is that it will be accepted. The wording of subsection (6) gives multiple authorities no option in responding to an invitation but to make proposals in accordance with that invitation. So it is clear that an invitation from the Secretary of State is not so much a suggestion or a request but an offer that those invited cannot refuse. Even though the judgment of the judicial review put forward by Shrewsbury and others has supported the Government’s policy of restructuring and the issue of an invitation prior to legislation, the measures still in the Bill mean that they could commence a huge restructuring programme in future with no need for primary legislation and no parliamentary scrutiny as to its appropriateness. Directions in this legislation have already been limited to 25 January 2008. We believe, as we have discussed previously, that invitations for unitaries should also be so limited. Therefore, I beg to move.