Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

The name of my noble friend Lord Hanningfield is attached to this amendment. Therefore, it is clear that we support it and are in general sympathetic to it. It needs to be made clear that it refers to organisations and contractors that are funded by the council; that is, the council is handing taxpayers’ money to people to do a job for the council. That covers not only private organisations, but voluntary organisations and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, said, it applies to contractors, who are being paid by contract. The whole of this part of the Bill is designed to increase the authority and power of overview and scrutiny, which until now has been a toothless tiger—no one much enjoys it and it has not had a hugely influential role. That is beginning to change. Interestingly, a short time ago three overview and scrutiny committees in my area looked at a plan for bringing two hospitals together, of one of which I am chairman. The three scrutiny committees worked together. It was a very effective inquiry into the proposals, which produced an effective and important report. There is beginning to be more of a role; clearly, where council money is concerned, overview and scrutiny ought to be able to extend its role, which is very important. There are endless areas—IT systems, care of the elderly in old people’s homes, contractors providing food and voluntary organisations providing services for bathing and, in many cases, now running old people’s affairs. It is crucial that the overview and scrutiny committee should have a role and be able to be part of a rigorous process that enables it to get information. It is not satisfactory to say that a written report will be made and that someone will not need to appear. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, said, that would be useless. You need to be able to ask people questions, to see the colour of their eyes and how they respond to the question. It is over-protection of people in that position that they should not be required to appear and give information as put forward. Some might be limited, but it should be there. For those reasons and because local area agreement targets will need to be scrutinised—some of those targets will be with people receiving public money—I think that the two amendments are extremely important. I therefore support them.