Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

Before the noble Lord withdraws his amendment, which I assume he is going to do, I must say that this is fairly unsatisfactory. I am grateful to the Minister for saying all that to us because it confirms our worst fears. It is therefore helpful to have it set out in Hansard. It seems that the promises, if they were promises, or even the wish list promised by Phil Woolas, do not exist. It seems that negotiations with other Whitehall departments are either still taking place or have not even started yet. There is no guarantee at all as to which ones might come out. I give a small, local example: on the recreation ground on the hill above our house, there was a huge nuisance for a long time with aeromodellers flying their model aircraft in a very inappropriate place around and above houses. There was a long campaign, supported by the parish and borough councils, to bring in by-laws to stop it. It took 15 years before the borough council was able to do so, because the Home Office—the confirming authority—would not do it. The idea that local by-laws can be passed by local authorities in a democratic, local way was not a great step forward, but a useful part of the devolution which the Government were promising us. Yet, whenever we look at these devolutions, they seem even more feeble than they sounded at first. I do not blame the Minister at all—she is just doing her job here—but her Government must stand up and tell us which departments are signed up to this. We understand very well that some by-laws will not be suitable, and some departments will be reluctant. We want to know which departments are signed up, and we want a clear list of those by-laws which are going to be released in the first, say, three years after the passing of this Bill. That is a reasonable thing to ask; perhaps the first 12 months. If we do not know that, we will not be very happy to let this clause go through at a later stage.