Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

That is a devastating question; I will think about it while I am answering the first question. I am not entirely certain that I will give the noble Baroness much satisfaction on this. It comes back to the rather circular argument about the LINks not being on the face of the Bill. Amendments Nos. 238AB and 239ZA seek to make it a requirement that once the annual report has been drafted it should be distributed in such a manner as members of the local involvement network, having had regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State, consider appropriate. As the clause is currently drafted, the person preparing the report should have regard to the guidance, and the noble Baroness has asked us to change that. There are problems with mentioning the members of LINks in the Bill because, as we said, the notion of membership may be conditional. We do not wish to pre-empt LINks in organising their governance structure and ways of working—as I said, some may want a notion of ““membership”” and others may not. However, there is a further complexity. Although it is somewhat complex—that is quite an admission—Clause 227 has been drafted carefully to ensure that someone is always responsible for writing an annual report for LINks. Usually, the host will assist the LINk in the preparing the annual report. However, the provision is drafted as it is because at times a LINk may not be in place—for example, when the host has recently been set up and the LINk’s structure is not yet defined and it has not yet begun to undertake its activities. In that case, the host will still be expected to cover in its annual report the activities that it has undertaken. It would not be workable to accept Amendments Nos. 238AB and 239ZA because members of a LINk may not necessarily be available to decide how an annual report should be distributed. Therefore, we think it appropriate that whoever drafts the annual report should have regard to the statutory guidance in deciding how it should be distributed. Perhaps we could think about making some sort of reference to that in the guidance. With regard to who will receive the report, it will certainly be made available to the general public—that is the whole point of the exercise—and it will also go to the overview and scrutiny committee, the local authority, the PCT, the other partners and the Secretary of State. Therefore, it will have a wide circulation.