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Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 40: 40: Clause 108, page 72, line 40, leave out ““107(2)”” and insert ““112”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I can be reasonably brief. These are Report stage amendments which were withdrawn by agreement because they were confused with others. The amendments seek to ensure that the Secretary of State does not meddle with any targets once they have been agreed by local authorities. We have bandied around the numbers of targets set by central government. We were hoping that there would be no more than 35; the Minister will not put them in the Bill but we are all assuming that the number will be limited. Once the Secretary of State has set his or her target, these amendments would prevent the Secretary of State arbitrarily changing any other targets within agreements. He will be able to make changes only to national targets, leaving local targets alone. Local authorities have a plethora of targets imposed from central government. Therefore, once central government have resisted the temptation to produce any more, any changes should be limited only to those targets set by the Secretary of State, leaving the local authorities to deal with their own targets. That is basically the amendment. I beg to move.