Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 215ZA: 215ZA: Clause 121, page 77, line 9, leave out ““local government”” The noble Lord said: I will speak also to the other amendments in the group, Amendments Nos. 215ZB and 215ZE. We are coming on to discuss what has been called the community call to action. I take it that this is meant to be one of the really sexy parts of the Bill, which provides an exciting new right for people in communities and for communities to call their representatives to action and to achieve action. When this was first revealed in the local government White Paper, some of us on these Benches looked at the charts showing how this would work and we fell about laughing. Even now I do not regard this as much more serious than that. It might be a bag of beans, but it is not more than a bag of beans as far as the community and action are concerned, or even—and this is what it is really about—concerning what ordinary backbench ward councillors can do. This is all tied up with the role of backbenchers, why people become councillors and the undoubted feeling in local government that the role of ordinary councillors has been downgraded since the introduction of new arrangements in the 2000 Act. We can talk about whether that is justified and what can be done about it, but there is a widespread feeling in local government that ordinary councillors do not have the status and the ability to influence things that they used to have; the existence of that feeling is a fact. A very interesting report was produced recently which unfortunately came a bit late to inform the discussions on the Bill. It is The Role of Councillors: Report of an Inquiry by the All-Party Parliamentary Local Government Group. I will briefly refer to that report, because it confirms what I have been saying. On page 9, one of the witnesses, Councillor Katrina Bull from Nottingham—who I do not know at all—says: "““I would think backbenchers feel they are not part of the decision-making process any more … the perception is that they are excluded from lots of decisions because of the new structures””." Professor Steve Leach says: "““Overview and scrutiny, which was the main element of the Act which involves ward councillors, has struggled to establish a high profile among local councillors””." Councillor Maggie Foot from South Somerset Council—who I do know—says: "““Scrutiny is becoming much more issue-led””." She is from a council that is making a real effort for overview and scrutiny to be successful. Two elements are identified in the report: first, holding the executive to account and, secondly, investigations and policy development. It is interesting that, more and more, councils are finding that the investigations and policy development side is productive and helpful and provides a useful role for backbench councillors. Simply holding the executive to account and doing investigations some three, six or nine months after things have happened have turned out, in many cases, to be fairly arid. The question that comes to the fore here and which is crucial to the amendments is: why do councillors get elected in the first place? Why do people stand for the council? Some might stand because they see leading councillors as role models in the community and they would like to be one of those people in due course, or even immediately. We have all come across such people. I do not think, on the whole, that councillors get on to a council because they want to take part in overview and scrutiny, even if they have heard of it before they get elected. It is well understood that most people, when first elected, want to represent their ward. They also want to take part in decision-making about things that affect their ward. Most new councillors do not expect to take part in the broad strategic decisions or the major decisions that the council makes, but they expect to be able to have a direct influence on what happens on their patch. Page 14 of the interesting report from the All-Party Parliamentary Local Government Group sets out a table of 12 roles for councillors. I will not read them all out, but they are interesting. They range from managing relationships within a political group, to attending whole council meetings, to advocating on behalf of their ward, to taking part in overview and scrutiny, and so on. What is missing from that list is the idea that councillors want to be part and parcel of the decision-making process about the things that happen in their ward, in the slightly wider community, in the town or rural area or in their part of the city. Ultimately, they may become leading councillors and take part in strategic decisions. What is fundamentally missing in the new arrangements is the sense that people are able to take part in the decisions that affect their patch. That is at the heart of it, and that is where we need to get to. What do the proposals do? A community call for action re-enacts Section 21(8) of the 2000 Act, which enables members of overview and scrutiny committees and members of sub-committees of those committees to put items on the agenda. That is no big thing. Proposed new Section 21A(1)(c), "““enables any member of the authority to refer to an overview and scrutiny committee of the authority of which he is not a member any local government matter which is relevant to the functions of the committee””." I am astonished that there are councils that do not allow that anyway. I know there are councils that do not allow it, and giving people that right is a very small advance. But it is something that councillors ought to be able to do without legislation. It is a minor step forward—it is a bag of beans. In councils that are run so autocratically they do not allow that kind of thing, it will be a step forward. But as a community call for action, it is incredibly weak. These amendments attempt to firm it up a bit. Amendment No. 215ZA seeks to take out the words stating that it can only be a local government matter, and Amendment No. 215ZE to take out subsection (10), which defines a ““local government matter”” as a matter which, "““relates to the discharge of any function of the authority””" or which, "““affects all or part of the electoral area for which the member is elected or any person who lives or works in that area””." When people vote for a councillor, they do not expect that that councillor’s ability to raise issues will be limited to the things that their authority can do. That is particularly so in two-tier areas. If there is a local health issue—perhaps a controversy about building a new local health centre or closing one down—everyone will expect the councillor to be able to take part. Under this legislation, overview and scrutiny committees will have a wider remit than they have now—which would be welcome—so why on Earth can a councillor not raise that as well as something that is the direct responsibility of the authority? Ideally they ought to be able to raise anything. If the overview and scrutiny committee then says that it is not going to do it because it has no power over the trains or whatever, then so be it. But it ought not to be limited at the initial stage when the councillor makes the application. It ought to be allowed particularly within the wider new powers of overview and scrutiny committees generally. Amendment No. 215ZB refers to proposed new Section 21A(3), which says that the member has to have regard to guidance from the Secretary of State before they put forward an application. As my noble friend said on the previous group of amendments, ““having regard to”” is a weak form of words, and perhaps it is. But when it says, ““Have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State””, and it is statutory guidance, people will have to obey it whether they like it or not. That means that the Secretary of State can give instructions without having to get orders through Parliament. That a member should have to have regard to guidance from the Secretary of State is ridiculous. The ordinary ward member ought to be able to put forward what they want. If the authority then has to have regard to guidance, fair enough. At the very least, any guidance ought to be locally determined. So that clause ought to be taken out—it is a step too far where detailed national guidance is concerned. The final point relates to Amendment No. 215ZE, which would remove proposed new Section 21A(10)—which restricts ““local government matter”” not to the function of the authority but to all or part of the electoral area, or any person who lives or works in that area. Who on Earth, apart from councillors and other such people, knows where ward boundaries are? Sometimes they are obvious, but very often towns are divided in a completely arbitrary way between wards and nobody apart from the people who represent those wards knows where the wards are. If you get elected as a councillor in a town like Wilmslow in Cheshire which might be divided into four or five wards for the district, you ought to be able to raise any issue that affects that town. But councillors do not represent just their ward; they represent their town, their wider community, the whole council area and their political party if they have one and their own views. This is the balance—the synthesis—that all councillors have to sort out to their own satisfaction. If there is a call to action and an ability to take it to an overview and scrutiny committee, it ought to be open to a councillor to take on any issue, not just one linked to their own ward. Otherwise it is very narrow, very restricted and, I’m sorry to say, not very sexy at all. I beg to move.