Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

My Lords, perhaps all our voices are going at this time of night. I am of course grateful to the Minister for her assurances and reassurances, but I do not need reassurances from her; I have no doubt whatsoever of her good faith and good intentions in all this. However, we have said on other occasions that it is just possible that one day there may be a different national authority—a Secretary of State with perhaps less benevolent intentions—and the power will still be there to be used. In a sense, the Minister is saying that, in the end, the Government do not trust local authorities. I understand the desire to bring everyone up to the best standards, as the Minister said, but that will never be achieved, because by definition if you are best, you are better than everyone else. We all want to improve standards. I perhaps have greater faith in local government than the drafters of the Bill do, because although not all local authorities will operate the petitions process as well as others—that will always be the case—generally authorities will want to do this well and many are doing it already. They will want to make it work, and that will happen. I hope that the Minister is right in her reassurances that it is very unlikely that these provisions will ever be used. We all join in hoping that. If they are, the intentions of the legislation will have failed, and none of us wants that to happen. I will of course beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 82 withdrawn. Amendments 83 to 86 not moved. Clause 20: Handling of petitions by other bodies Amendment 87 not moved.