Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
10:30 am
Andrew Stunell (Shadow Secretary of State for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Communities and Local Government), Department for Communities and Local Government; Hazel Grove, Liberal Democrat)
I start by welcoming you to the Chair, Mr. Benton. We are looking forward to working with you and other members of the Committee over the next few weeks.
On the new process, the Liberal Democrats strongly support the additional element of procedure in the Committee. We hope that it will turn out to be a profitable process for this Committee, and that it can be developed on future occasions to be still more effective. It is clearly sensible that we have access to expert and practitioner advice on some of the key elements of the Bill, and we are looking forward to working through that process.
The Conservative spokesman said that we on this Committee are pioneers, but I think that perhaps we are more like guinea pigs. The Government have tried hard, but if we are to be guinea pigs, can we have a bit more lettuce and a bit less grit next time? There is scope to improve the process. I do not blame anybody. We are pioneers—there were no protocols or process and we have had to make the best of things. Nevertheless, I hope that the opportunity will be taken, behind the scenes, to consider the lessons learned by all those involved on how the new process should be commissioned and initiated.
I support the point made by the Chairman of Ways and Means in his initial proposal that there should be two weekends-worth of thinking time—a clear week—between Second Reading and plunging into the process. The speed with which we have begun the Committee stage is the reason why my third colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Southport, is not here. He is away on a parliamentary visit and it was not possible for him to reorganise his schedule in the time available.
My party looks forward to working on the Bill with other colleagues in the Committee. We have some major issues that we shall bring to the attention of the Committee, but I echo the words of the Conservative Front-Bench spokesman—we do not intend either to waste the Committee’s time or to involve ourselves in unnecessary controversy. We want to see a much improved Bill, and we shall work constructively to achieve that.