Local Government Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill

I have a few points to make and questions to ask. The Minister may be able to respond to some of them. One question is whether measures such as this are ““localist”” or ““centralist””. While we have been dealing with the Localism Bill, what I have considered to be sensible amendments and suggestions have been rejected by Ministers on the grounds that they would impose burdens and extra costs on local authorities. We must be careful not to do that in this Bill. Has the Bill a centralist aspect, and should that be avoided? Perhaps the Minister will tell me what he thinks. Another question is whether the proposed measures could be contained in guidance rather than a Bill which, potentially, imposes burdens on local authorities. Given that the Localism Bill confers 142 order-making powers on the Secretary of State, it would be surprising if there were not some way of incorporating this Bill's provisions in them. Clause 2(1) requires a local authority to"““provide the event organiser with written notification of the decision””" to ban or impose restrictions on an event"““on the day on which the decision is taken.””" I find that rather peculiar. In my experience of local government, we hold our meetings in the evenings. It does not strike me as feasible to require a local authority to give written notification on the day on which a decision is taken. It is just a question of wording. I think that some reasonably short time should be specified instead.