Clause 4
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
12:45 pm
Phil Woolas (Minister of State (Local Government & Community Cohesion), Department for Communities and Local Government; Oldham East and Saddleworth, Labour)
The Bill provides, through the invitation procedure and the relevant criteria, for the council making the proposal to demonstrate that it has broad public support. How it does so is a matter for the council. That is one of the criteria that the Secretary of State must use to judge those proposals, but it is up to a council to decide whether to hold a referendum and the Secretary of State will take that into account. The weight given to any result in relation to such a proposal will depend on the views of surrounding areas when there are conflicting proposals and also on the question asked in any such referendum.
Local authorities have powers to run referendums under existing legislation—as part of a devolutionary approach from this Government—decide on the information available to the electorate and the arrangements for conducting the poll. It is up to councils to provide details of public support in their proposals. During the stakeholder consultation on the proposals, which we are preliminarily minded to implement, it will be open to anyone to make representations about them. Perhaps I can just explain what that means.
The intention is to consider the proposals that have been submitted, judge them against the criteria that have been outlined and consult more widely with interested parties, where there is a case against the criteria, between the end of March and the end of June 2007. Committee members should bear in mind two points. First, proposals in response to the invitation can only have come from local authorities by resolution of the council, which means that opposition council groups and other interested parties have not been allowed to advance a proposal. It is quite right and proper that they and many others should have their say. Secondly, the timetable that I have outlined deliberately coincides with the local election period, so that the public can have their say. To reassure the Committee of my good will in respect of that intention, I should say that, of the proposals that have been advanced, as any of us would have anticipated, some have cross-party support in some areas and conflicting support from the same parties at county and district level, on both sides, and from all parties in the House.
Our sensible approach reaffirms our commitment that this should be a bottom-up process. I emphasise that the Government’s policy is to say, on this and other matters, that it is up to councils to decide and justify their position and, as I mentioned before, to be accountable for those decisions.