Clause 2
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
12:00 pm
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)
These are interesting amendments because they are irrelevant if the Minister’s proposals are limited by time as none of them cross county boundaries. If the Minister loses his power of direction or it is limited along the lines of our previous debate the proposals lose their force. However, while there is no time limit and we do not know what the direction restriction will be, the amendments are relevant and they need to be tested. We will support the amendments on the basis that without the time and the power restriction, the geography restriction is needed as a fallback.
The Minister said that he lived at County End but he did not say which side of the line he lived; perhaps he does not want to disclose it to the Committee. The example of Middlesex was given and I gave the example of Poynton. The Minister rightly said that many of my constituents like to say that they live in Cheshire; others like to say that they live in Derbyshire.
Those historic boundaries have had great force and meaning for people for a very long time. Removing type C in the current context is neither here nor there, but the proposal is another prod to the Minister to ensure that he gets the time and the powers sorted out so that he does not have to fuss about the geography.