Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I shall first address the issue of prescription. Clause 14(6) states that the, "““petition scheme must secure that the steps which may be taken by the authority””," and it then gives an indicative list of potential actions. It illustrates to the local community the range of things that the local authority can do in order to respond. The noble Lords, Lord Greaves and Lord Hanningfield, focused on the fact that ““giving effect”” usually means a cabinet member taking an action, and that is what is encompassed in paragraph (a). The processes outlined in the noble Lord’s amendment are about giving effect. We have not gone into the detail, as the noble Lord has done in his amendment. The actions listed in the amendment are about the internal processes that the councillors would go though. I respect and understand that, but they are all contained in the notion of giving effect. The idea of the indicative list is to flag up to citizens and the local community that other things can happen, including commissioning research. We hope that there will be many instances where the local authority can immediately carry out the action and give effect to the request in the petition in some of the ways that the noble Lord refers to in his amendment. However, there are more complex issues. For example, if a petition puts the case for additional youth facilities, there may be a need to find out exactly how many young people are using the existing facilities and what their local ambitions and needs are in relation to the facilities that they might have. That can come under the heading of commissioning research from young people.