Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

But there is no reason why anyone should. It is unlikely. We are looking for local parties to put forward their own slates, of which there may be more than one. New Section 40B makes provision that anyone wishing to become a member of an elected executive must be included in the list of persons who are seeking to be returned. The council can specify whether or not the elections for elected executives should be contested by proposed executives consisting of the same number of members or whether to allow the elections to be contested by proposed executives of different sizes. That is what the noble Lord was referring to in the table that specifies the different sizes. There is a minimum and a maximum size. In fact, the Local Government Act 2000 determined the maximum size as 10. But where a council specifies the minimum and maximum number for proposed elected executives, it will also be able to specify a minimum number below which the membership of the elected executive may not fall without triggering a by-election. I shall come on to what triggers a by-election in a moment. New Section 40C allows a person to stand as both a councillor and a member of the proposed executive—that answers the point of the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham—and makes provision as to what should happen in the event of a councillor being returned as a member of the executive. If elected, a vacancy will arise in the office of councillor and it will prompt the need for a by-election. So, yes, if a member of the slate also stands as a ward councillor and is elected as a ward councillor, a by-election will at that point be triggered. It is the same situation as arises when a person is returned at the same time as both an elected mayor and a councillor. Like an elected mayor, an elected executive member will have been elected by all the electors and therefore should act in the interests of the whole council area, not just in the interests of a specific ward or county division. Clauses 69 and 71 are consequential on that.