Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I would not dispute that. There is an inextricable relationship with social and economic affairs. But in the Police and Justice Act, it was decided that community safety issues were different and that it was a more reasonable expectation. People are so exercised about personal safety. They are exercised about their family’s safety, and the safety of their community and neighbourhood, so it required a more stringent process in place to ensure that it could be treated differently, with additional powers for the councillor. That is what the 2006 Act provided, and why the distinction was made. That is the case we have made, expressed in Act, for why there is a distinction in how councillors will respond. On the other hand, we also had to consider whether we should go in the other direction, placing an equivalent duty on councillors and council executives for any and every ““local government matter””. But surely it would be insupportable for a local councillor to have to respond to everything that came from any direction. Most councillors are wonderful part-time workers, but to extend the duty to cover virtually all their work would impose an impossible burden. We have achieved a balance between those two situations in the Bill. There is a third, unintended, consequence of the amendment. Section 19(4) of the Police and Justice Act provides that the community call for action should not apply to county councils for areas where there are district councils. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, will appreciate that that was included to ensure that the measure has the local focus which was intended for it, and to prevent confusion between the scrutiny role of police authorities and county councils’ scrutiny committees. If these amendments were carried, that distinction would be lost. Amendments Nos. 215A to 215D go further than that, to bring the treatment of crime and disorder matters within the scope of this Bill. They seek to deprive the Secretary of State of the power we propose for her to make an order defining other descriptions of excluded matters. We said in the Local Government White Paper that there must be circumstances in which the community call for action should not be available for all; this goes back to the 2000 Act. There are already statutory appeals processes—for example, on planning, licensing, council tax, non-domestic rates, the quasi-judicial functions and so on. In consultation with the Local Government Association and others, we will work at the detail of these exclusions, which is consistent with the present powers. I understand the point that the noble Baroness has made. Her argument is being heard loud and clear by the Government. We do not feel that we can move on that, for reasons explicit in the Police and Justice Act about the importance of community safety. Again, the amendment has unintended consequences. We will have to ensure that measures to put community calls for action in place are implemented in a coherent way so that councillors, the police and the public can understand them. I assure the Committee that we will be doing that.