Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I hope that I can enlighten the noble Baroness. Amendments Nos. 227 to 235 provide some fine-tuning to Clauses 176 and 178 further to clarify the local commissioners’ powers relating to the publication of information on an anonymised basis and to make recommendations in their reports as to how local authorities should resolve instances of maladministration or service failure. The changes further clarify the jurisdiction of the local commissioners and avert any unintended operational difficulties for the local commissioners. Amendments Nos. 273 to 279 and 282 to 286 are necessary to complement the Regulatory Reform (Collaboration etc. between Ombudsmen) Order 2007, which facilitates joint working between the parliamentary, health and local commissioners. As to Amendment No. 226B, it may be helpful if I first explain the general background to Clause 173. This clause is intended to make it clear that the local commissioners’ jurisdiction extends to the investigation of maladministration or service failure where local authority functions are exercised under partnership arrangements. By way of further clarification in this respect, we have also taken the opportunity to reformulate the wording of Section 25 of the Local Government Act 1974 on the ““relevant matters”” falling with the commissioners’ jurisdiction, as this has been subject to many amendments over the years and has consequently become somewhat difficult to decipher. The effect of this amendment would be to reverse our proposed repeal of subsection (4A)(c) of Section 25 of the Local Government Act 1974, which provides for the Greater London Authority to be responsible to the Local Government Ombudsman for actions of any body or person, "““exercising any functions on behalf of the GLA””." We have proposed the repeal of this subsection because we are replacing it with a clearer formulation more generally, whereby any authority that comes within the local commissioners’ jurisdiction is responsible for the actions of, "““any authority exercising the functions of the authority””." Our repeal does not alter the position on the local commissioners’ jurisdiction with regard to functions exercised by the GLA. I hope that that has enlightened the noble Baroness and that she will agree to withdraw the amendment.