Schedule 1 - Best value audit and inspections
Public Audit (Wales) Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Mr Bill Wiggin (Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Local and Devolved Government Affairs; Leominster, Conservative)
Amendment No. 39 would delete subsection (4) of proposed new section 2A of the Local Government Act 1999. That section, which appears in paragraph 3 of schedule 1, deals with the best value audit for Wales. This is a probing amendment to find out how the Government think that it will work in practice to exempt certain best value authorities from a functional duty. Amendment No. 40 would delete the words ''and in deciding whether to do so'' from subsection (4) of proposed new section 4A, as inserted by paragraph 9.
The wording implies that the Auditor General has the choice of whether to carry out an inspection of a best value authority, but under subsection (2), the Secretary of State may direct him to carry out an inspection, with which the Auditor General must comply. How, therefore, can the Auditor General have the choice to decide whether to do so, when he is under a compulsory direction?