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Public Bodies Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his last point on arranging a briefing for us. Some of us are still mystified. Personally, I am mystified as to why, if local enterprise partnerships are such a good thing, they cannot be included in the Bill. That seems to be a contradiction in terms. The more important point is about the transfer of functions from the RDA. I hope that the Government will seriously think about this again. What I heard from the Minister was that there is an intention to centralise quite a lot of these functions. There is an intention that it will be top-down and that the growth fund will decide which projects will go ahead. When I have read Government policy statements, it seems to me that, on areas such as innovation, the marketing of the region and skills, it is intended that these functions will be conducted at national level. I will not detain the House any longer on this tonight. I hope that we will have the opportunity to come back to it. I look forward to the briefing that the Minister has promised and, on that basis, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 8 withdrawn. Amendments 9 to 14 not moved. Amendment 15 had been withdrawn from the Marshalled List. Amendments 16 and 16A not moved. Clause 1, as amended, agreed. Schedule 1 : Power to Abolish: Bodies and Offices Amendment 17 Schedule 1 : Power to Abolish: Bodies and Offices Amendment 17 Moved by