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Localism Bill

My Lords, I confirm that the statutory instrument relating to this is in the Library and has been there since 15 June. Clause 8 defines local authorities for the purposes of the chapter, which are the bodies that will have the new power. By restricting the definition to ““eligible”” parish councils, the clause provides a power for the Secretary of State to set conditions by order for which parish councils will have the general power. We are not making the general power of competence available to all parish councils, as the noble Lord suggested. Our view is that, given the breadth of the power and the widely varying circumstances of parish councils, there should be some criteria in place to demonstrate that the parish is representative of its community and has some understanding of the power to help to prevent misuse. The draft statutory instrument that we made available to the House in the Library on 15 June indicates our intention that, to access the power, two conditions need to be met. These are that two-thirds of the councillors are democratically elected and that the parish clerk has received training in the use of the new power. These criteria have been discussed with the National Association of Local Councils and other interested parties. Our aim is to ensure that eligible parish councils will be able to use the new power at the same time as other local authorities—an improvement over what happened with the existing well-being power, which was extended to some parish councils only in 2009. However, the noble Lord asked me particularly about the criteria, and those are the criteria that will be in the statutory instruments. Amendments 26 and 28 are being considered. I will come back on these at a later stage.