Clause 2 - Power to create combined fire and rescue authorities
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
10:15 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
If the Minister is telling us that the critical role played by the Secretary of State is that a combination scheme needed to be made in order to retain the status quo when a unitary authority was created out of what was a county, that is different from suggesting that the Secretary of State has been proactively involved in creating combined fire authorities different from those that existed before their creation.