Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I can give the noble Baroness some general argument and a specific example of the sort of things we would like to see. When the local authority takes it upon itself to act as a single point of contact, it will be able to bring together information about a wide variety of roles. That will bring people into contact not just with the thing that they are interested in or know about but with a large number of related opportunities that they may not know about. That is added value. Many people will go to a local authority website first rather than try to seek out individual organisations and their information points. It will be much easier for them to be rerouted via a local authority single point in relation to myriad opportunities that may be more or less obscured by other things. Bristol has used such an opportunity in relation to its Operation Black Vote. This scheme involved people from the Bristol black and minority ethnic community shadowing local councillors. The aim was to encourage these people to stand as councillors. It became a very well regarded scheme. Some participants felt that they could take a role in local politics but others went on to take up other civic roles, such as school governors or magistrates. Because the information that was put in front of them in one place was brought together and opportunities were pointed out, they were signposted towards other opportunities. It was not a failure of the scheme that they did not stand as councillors; it was a bonus of the scheme that they wanted to serve in the community in a civic role that suited them. They might well not have found out how to do that had the scheme not been in place. That illustrates that people who want to get involved often find out about other things that suit them and other matters that interest them, which they might not have come across had the relevant information not been brought together at a central point. I hope the noble Baroness does not feel that she has to labour this point because the obverse is to say that there is no point in giving anyone information. As she well knows, we simply do not have enough young, diverse, representative people in these crucial roles, particularly as regards the criminal justice system. I hope that she welcomes what we are trying to do.