---

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 49: 49: Clause 121, page 83, line 25, leave out from ““matters”” to end of line 26 and insert ““in relation to which the committee has functions under or by virtue of section 19.”””” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, throughout the passage of the Bill it has been clear that, subject to some discussion of details, there has been a broad consensus that Clause 119 is on the right lines. At the moment, the only councillors who can refer matters to an overview and scrutiny committee are the members of that committee itself. That straightforward measure enables any elected councillor to bring an issue of local concern to the overview and scrutiny committee and have it discussed to see whether a way forward can be suggested. That committee has substantial powers to look into such matters, and elsewhere in this Bill we are adding to those powers. That is a big step forward for the local councillor. So this is an enabling measure. However, as we have explained many times, we decided not to seek to place a duty on local councillors to consider matters that are put to them by local people, nor to require them to respond. Given the very wide range of issues that councillors have before them, we could not see that it would be sensible to do that. Indeed, we felt—and I think this is common ground—that such a duty would be unsupportable in practice and that therefore it was better to rely on councillors’ good judgment and energy to sift through and, where possible, resolve such issues as they become aware of them. That is all part of a councillor’s normal role, as noble Lords pointed out to me several times, with increasing asperity. Additionally, the new power that we provide will make them more effective local champions—that is, the power to demand committee consideration of problems where they feel it would help. In this context, there has been continuing concern about the related measure passed by Parliament a year ago but which has not yet been brought into force. That is the part of Section 19 of the Police and Justice Act 2006 that deals with the consideration of local crime and disorder matters by councillors. In that context, Parliament has already taken a different view. This provision also empowered the councillor to take a matter to an overview and scrutiny committee—in this case the committee created by the Police and Justice Act, the crime and disorder committee. However, in addition, we also placed a duty on councillors both to consider all local crime and disorder matters put to them by local people, and to respond. In broad terms, Section 19 gave the committee two roles. First, it gave a strategic role in that it is required to maintain oversight of the work of the crime and disorder reduction partnerships in preparing and executing crime and disorder reduction strategies for the area. Secondly, it gave a tactical role in that, as I have said, it is required to consider local crime and disorder matters referred to it by local councillors. The power given to local people to demand consideration of such an issue by a councillor is reinforced by a right of appeal, given by Section 19(4), to the executive of the council. That comes into play if the councillor declines to refer the matter to the crime and disorder committee him or herself. The executive of the council is then required, likewise, to consider the matter; and is similarly empowered to refer it to the crime and disorder committee. Ministers have argued in both Houses for the distinct treatment of local crime and disorder matters on the grounds that, although obviously more burdensome—and we did not deny that—the complications were justified where matters of community safety were concerned. On the other hand, the local government community, noble Lords in this House and Members of the House of Commons have argued that having two models for community call for action would in practice be too confusing for the public and for local councillors and officers. It has also been argued that the burden that the Police and Justice Act places on councillors will put many councillors under unnecessary pressure and will require support from local officials which will take resources away from work that might add more value. It has been argued, too, that the power to launch an appeal to the executive is possibly an expensive luxury that will take up too much time. We had some very good debates on this matter at earlier stages and have listened very carefully. We have come to the conclusion that, although we think the scope for confusion is modest, we are persuaded that we should accept the strong views held outside and inside this House and adjust the Police and Justice Act to bring it into line with the provisions in this Bill. That is the main thrust of the amendments I am now proposing, with some minor consequential amendments. To be quite clear, what we intend by way of our amendment is that the power given to a councillor to refer a local crime and disorder matter to the crime and disorder committee will remain. However, the duty placed on the councillor to respond to a person who lives or works in the councillor’s electoral area will be dropped and, therefore, so will the related necessity for an appeal to the executive. We are minded to change our policy for a reason above and beyond the force of the arguments that I have heard in this House. In addition, we have set out, in the Green Paper entitled The Governance of Britain, an agenda for taking forward democratic and constitutional reforms in future. Some of those proposals are aimed at the local level and will seek to take further empowerment of communities to influence public decision-making. One example is the proposed duty on local authorities to respond to some petitions. All these ideas are to be subject to consultation and discussion in some form or other. For the time being, it seems sensible to clear the ground by making the so-called ““community call for action”” as simple and consistent as possible, by focusing it entirely on the empowerment of elected councillors to act as advocates for their own communities. Indeed, I would argue that the result might more appropriately be called a ““councillor call for action””. I shall take noble Lords through the proposed amendments. Let me acknowledge that they look a good deal more complicated than the amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, and others at earlier stages of the Bill, but this is more apparent than real. In drafting the amendments, we had to keep in mind the fact that the Police and Justice Act created a new and somewhat separate overview and scrutiny regime for crime and disorder. The fact is reflected elsewhere in the Bill, in Clauses 127, 128 and 129, for example. We need to do as little as possible to disturb that, because the arrangements in the Police and Justice Act were designed to provide oversight of a statutory partnership. But we wish to provide for the alignment on community calls for action, so we concluded that the best way to handle that would be to replicate as far as appropriate the provisions of the new Section 21A of the Local Government Act 2000 in the Police and Justice Act. We have also taken the opportunity to make some other peripheral changes to the handling of local crime and disorder matters. The first is that we have aligned the definition of a local crime and disorder matter more closely with that of a local government matter, so that it is a matter that affects a member’s electoral area or the people who live or work there. The present definition refers to crime and disorder in the area, and this seems unduly restrictive. Secondly, we have made the revised community call for action procedure for crime and disorder available to county as well as district councillors in a two-tier area. The current Section 19(3) applies it only to districts in such an area. The reasoning behind this was to avoid a situation in which individual citizens could go from councillor to councillor, looking for one who would take a matter up. The change that we now propose brings the procedure for local crime and disorder matters into line with that for local government matters. We are content to rely on guidance to ensure that authorities in two-tier areas should expect to work together, avoiding a situation in which different crime and disorder committees produce conflicting reports on the same issue. I should add that, elsewhere in this Bill, we are providing for restructuring and the result will be that some counties will become unitary authorities. It would be odd if their councillors could bring local crime and disorder matters to their committee but councillors in counties where there are district councils could not. The change that we are making will remove this anomaly. We have taken the opportunity to make it clear that the local authorities themselves, as well as the responsible authorities comprising the CDRP, are under a duty to consider, respond to and have regard to a crime and disorder committee’s reports. This is consistent with new Section 21B, which we are introducing via Clause 128. It appears to have been an oversight in the drafting of Section 19 originally. On the amendments, new subsection (3) brings the arrangements for crime and disorder committees, so far as they concern local crime and disorder matters, into line with the Local Government Act 2000 as we are amending it. Those arrangements must enable any member of the authority to refer a local crime and disorder matter to the committee; Section 19(4) defines what that means. It mirrors exactly the provision in Clause 119 for local government matters. Similarly, subsection (6) mirrors, with necessary modifications, the proposed new subsection (6) of Section 21A. It enables the committee to have regard to any delegated powers that the councillor might have thought of exercising, and provides that it may have regard to any representations that the member may make. Subsection (7) provides for transparency in the committee’s decision-making, in the same terms as the proposed new Section 21A(7). Subsection (8) applies to all the business of the committee, not just to local crime and disorder matters referred by individual members. It therefore preserves the existing provision of Section 19 covering the provision of copies of the committee’s reports to the responsible authorities, but adds that a copy must go also to the member who referred a local crime and disorder matter. New subsections (8A) and (8B) cover the behaviour of authorities, bodies or persons to whom the committee has sent a report or recommendations, or a copy of them. It preserves the requirements on those organisations set out in Section 19(8) to consider, respond to and have regard to these reports in exercising their functions. New subsection (3) makes consequential amendments within Section 19. New subsection (4) redefines ““local crime and disorder matter”” to align it as closely as possible with ““local government matter”” in new Section 21A of the LGA 2000. New subsections (5) to (7) make minor and consequential amendments to Section 20 of the Police and Justice Act. We propose to delete the ““in particular”” references to procedure and time limits for dealing with references by individual members to crime and disorder committees. This will further align it with Section 21A of the 2000 Act where, for ““local government matters””, we have been content to assume that the ““arrangements”” that local authorities are required to put in place will cover such matters locally. There are several consequential amendments to Clauses 121, 122 and 123. Finally, in relation to Wales, the amendment to Clause 242 will preserve the existing position with regard to Section 19 of the Police and Justice Act, Section 53(6) of which provides that Sections 19 and 20 and Schedule 8 come into force in Wales in accordance with provision made by order by the National Assembly for Wales. I am conscious that that was a long explanation, but given its importance I thought that noble Lords would appreciate having the detail in Hansard. I beg to move.