Clause 6
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
4:45 pm
Robert Syms (Shadow Minister (Local Government), Communities and Local Government; Poole, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 19, in clause 6, page 5, line 17, leave out ‘four weeks’ and insert ‘three months’.
The amendment is part of a theme, namely the speed of the timetable, that has been developed throughout this Bill and may last some weeks. Under clause 6, the relevant period for consultation back to the boundary commission is defined as four weeks. The amendment would clearly make it 12 weeks, and three months and is designed to tease out why the timetable is so tight. At this stage, the Minister usually gets up and says that this follows the Conservative legislation of 1992. However, I would be interested to know why four weeks is specified and why a little more time cannot be left for people to make further representations.