Local Authorities (Contracting Out of Community Infrastructure Levy Functions) Order 2011

My Lords, as a former member of the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee, at times I take a keen interest in secondary legislation. This is in an area that I was involved in when I was on the Front Bench, so I have taken a particular interest in it. It has already been said that the order is not controversial. The main legislation was the Planning Act 2008, followed by the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010. I wonder whether it was flagged up, particularly in the main legislation, that later on this is how things would happen. One of the reasons the Merits Committee does such a good job is because legislation in recent times has become more and more complicated, and more of the detail comes out in secondary legislation. My noble friend and I have been involved in local government legislation over the years, and we know how difficult this has been. Again, I wonder whether the way in which this was going to be enacted was flagged up in the primary legislation. I have one another minor question, which might be a little pernickety—I must account for it by saying that I have served on the Merits Committee. I notice that the consultation period was only six weeks. The statutory consultation period is quite often 12 weeks. I have not looked at it closely enough to know whether this was the correct period, and I understand that the Local Government Association and others were consulted, so there are no issues around it. However, I would like to know whether that was the correct period of consultation.