Clause 16 - Application of 1992 Act
Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill
11:30 am
Mr Christopher Leslie (Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office; Shipley, Labour)
I am surprised by this amendment, not least because—incorrectly, I suspect—my speaking notes suggested that it was tabled by the Liberal Democrats; I was expecting it to come from their end of the Room.
The 1992 Act specifically gave credence to the idea that in certain situations residuary bodies may well be necessary for flexibility or common-sense reasons. Therefore, it is strange that all of a sudden the Conservative party is proposing never to allow such flexibility to exist, and that the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge sees sinister motivations—he asked questions about manipulations of the situation being a motivation for creating a residuary body. It is also strange that he picked the north-east at random when, as everyone
now knows, the Audit Commission has deemed that that region has the highest proportion of excellent local authorities. As everybody can see, until such time as the boundary committee makes recommendations for a unitary structure, we cannot know what changes there might be to the local government structure of a particular region. Therefore, it would make sense to make provision now in case there are difficulties with regard to reasonable flexibility.