Clause 27 - Orders and regulations
Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill
9:30 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
It may come as a shock to the Under-Secretary, but I do not believe that my brief is to defend everything that was done by the previous Conservative Administration. We learn, and one thing we have learned that is relevant to the discussions of the Committee is that change in local government arrangements will not be durable and sustainable unless it is rooted at the bottom rather than passed down from the top. The Minister for Local Government and the Regions referred to comments by colleagues who were very much involved in such matters in the past. I do not take it as an absolute that I am required to stand here and defend something that was done before 1997. Instead, I shall consider whether a provision is sensible, as I expect the Under-Secretary to do.
However, in view of what the Under-Secretary said and the fact that, essentially, these probing amendments were meant to establish the precise meaning and relevance of the issues, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 27 ordered to stand part of the Bill.