Clause 19 - Charging
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State (Local and Regional Government), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
As the hon. Gentleman will realise when we debate cost recovery, some authorities currently make charges that appear to be in excess of what is required to deliver the service—although there are wider definitions of the factors involved in the overall provision of the relevant service or advice. We shall deal with that later. However, the hon. Gentleman has not paid heed to the parallel legislation, the Local Government Act 2003, which puts in place a charging regime that will apply to best value authorities, and therefore to fire and rescue authorities, and will enable them, as and when they have been subject to a comprehensive performance and assessment regime—