Yes, I take the noble Lord’s point. It comes back to one that I think the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, made about minimum standards in this area. It might be helpful if I took advice on this and wrote to noble Lords who have taken part in this debate, to see whether I can add some clarification.
Turning to Amendment 62, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of Stevenage, the levelling-up White Paper clearly states the Government’s ambition for devolution, including the devolution framework, which is underpinned by four principles. One of these principles is sensible geography. The White Paper clearly states that future devolution deals should be agreed over a sensible, functional economic area and/or a whole-county geography, with a single institution in place across that geographic footprint. We have already debated that issue on the previous group. The combined county authority model is being established in the Bill to provide a single institution that can cover such functional economic areas, or whole-county geographies, where there is existing two-tier local government and
multiple upper-tier councils. As such, I reassure the noble Baroness that combined county authorities will be focused on single economic hubs.
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While I am on this point, I think it was the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, who asked whether mayors were mandatory for a devolution deal. The answer is no, a mayor will not be a prerequisite for a new devolution deal, but we do believe that a high-profile, directly elected leader will be most effective for levelling up. They will provide a single point of accountability for local citizens. The Bill will also allow mayors to use different titles, if they wish to, not simply “mayor”—but that is a detail.
Amendment 63, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, seeks to prevent the Secretary of State laying regulations to establish a combined county authority until they have laid a statement in both Houses, including plans for a duty of co-operation between the CCA and neighbouring areas. A fundamental principle of devolution, as I emphasised earlier, is that it should be locally led. It should be for the area itself to decide how it wishes to co-operate with its neighbours, not for central government to impose this.
The Bill contains methods to support inter-area co-operation, such as the non-constituent member provisions, which would allow a neighbouring council to have a voice in a combined county authority, should the CCA wish for this. We have also seen good co-operation between existing combined authorities and their neighbours, as I mentioned earlier: for example, joint working between the West Yorkshire combined authority and the City of York on transport shows that this does work in practice. I hope the noble Baroness agrees that devolution should be locally led.
Turning to Amendment 64, combined county authorities are based on the building blocks of local authority areas. As such, while there is sometimes coterminosity with police forces and NHS trusts, sometimes there is not. Where possible, we encourage coterminosity and, where the boundaries of a combined county authority and its policing are coterminous, the Government’s preference is for the mayor of a combined county authority to take on the police and crime commissioner functions. Examples of where this has already happened for combined authorities include Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. Where there is no coterminosity with policing and health boundaries, there are other methods for ensuring collaboration, such as the Bill’s non-constituent and associate membership provisions, which would allow a member of an integrated care partnership or a police and crime commissioner to attend combined county authority meetings.
Amendment 65 proposes that all district councils in a combined county authority’s area would have to consent to its establishment. Only upper-tier local authorities—that is, two-tier county councils and unitary councils—can be constituent members of a combined county authority and only constituent members can consent to the establishment of a CCA. As district councils cannot be constituent members of a combined county authority, they cannot consent to its establishment.
The amendment would prevent a CCA being established unless all district councils within the CCA’s area agreed to it. I suggest that this would give district councils a privileged position above all other bodies that are not constituent members, and would in practice be likely to prevent devolution to many areas where the majority of councils are in favour. However, we agree that it is important for district councils to be able to have a say in the establishment of a combined county authority, and the Bill already provides for this.
As I mentioned a moment ago, Clause 43(4) states that, prior to submitting a proposal for a combined county authority to the Secretary of State, the local authorities proposing the establishment of a CCA must undertake a public consultation on the proposal in the area that the CCA will cover. As important local stakeholders, we would expect district councils to be involved and use this opportunity to have their say on the proposal. As stated in the levelling-up White Paper, we expect CCAs and their upper-tier local authorities to work closely with their district councils and have been pleased to see this happening in deal areas such as the east Midlands.
Amendment 101 seeks to ensure the public are consulted prior to the dissolution of a combined county authority. I support the noble Baroness’s desire for this, which is why there is already a requirement in the Bill for a public consultation on any proposals from the local area on changes to the area of a CCA or on the area being dissolved as part of a CCA being abolished. Where a combined county authority has been established and subsequently seeks to dissolve its area and abolish the CCA, Clause 24 enables the Secretary of state to make regulations for areas to achieve that.
The Secretary of State may make regulations dissolving the area of a CCA if the area consents, the Secretary of State agrees, and if Parliament approves the necessary secondary legislation. So there is, as it were, a “triple lock” on this process. In both scenarios, we fully recognise the crucial importance of residents in the local area having a say. That is why any CCA or local authority seeking to submit a proposal to the Secretary of State to dissolve it as part of the CCA being abolished has to carry out a public consultation as set out in Clause 45(3). This consultation must take place in the area covered by the CCA, which enables local residents, businesses and other interested parties, as I have mentioned, to have a strong input into any such proposals. A summary of consultation responses must then be submitted, in the same way as I described earlier, to the Secretary of State alongside the proposal.
Clause 46 provides the additional safeguard that I mentioned to ensure there is sufficient public consultation. This enables the Secretary of State to undertake a consultation prior to making any regulations to enact these changes, if they feel that there has been insufficient public involvement in the development of them.
I suggest that Amendment 102 is unnecessary because of the provisions in Clause 24. Clause 24 sets out the statutory requirements for the dissolution of a CCA’s area and subsequent abolition of the CCA. Any changes to the delivery of functions because of a combined
county authority’s boundary being abolished must be given active consideration. Such changes to the delivery of functions will be set out in the regulations the Secretary of State will make to abolish a combined county authority, which require the consent of the local area and parliamentary approval, as I have described.
Parliamentary committees and this House will have a statement in an explanatory memorandum explaining any changes to the combined county authority’s area or conferral of powers, the views of the consultees and how these changes meet the statutory test of improving economic, social and environmental well-being. If there is a local wish to abolish a CCA to which functions have been devolved, it is possible that those functions will be discontinued in that area.
The clauses already include provisions that, when changing an area or abolishing a CCA, the regulations can transfer functions to another public authority if that is decided to be appropriate. For some areas, a public authority will continue to undertake some of the functions in the area. For some, it may be decided that the function is no longer to be exercised in the area. As such, Parliament will already have this information through the means that I have described. I hope the noble Baroness is reassured.
I turn to Amendment 126, tabled by noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock. I agree with the intention of this amendment, which is to ensure the findings on any public consultation to establish a combined county authority are made public by the area submitting the proposal. The Bill already makes provision for this. I remind the Committee again of Clause 43(4), which states that, prior to submitting a proposal for a combined county authority to the Secretary of State, the local authorities proposing the establishment of a CCA have to conduct a public consultation on the proposal. That will provide an opportunity for local residents and other stakeholders to have their say. A summary of consultation responses must be submitted alongside the proposal to the Secretary of State. The decision to submit this summary will be taken at council meetings, which are held publicly. As such, the summary of consultation results will be publicly available.
I hope that these rather lengthy explanatory comments are helpful and that the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, will feel able to withdraw Amendment 61.