Clause 6
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
4:45 pm
Bob Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst, Conservative)
Mr. Benton, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship in these more familiar surroundings.
I was interested in what the Minister said, because it seems to confirm my hon. Friend’s concern that there will not be public inquiries under this procedure. If that is so, it would be as well if that were spelled out specifically. Is that intended to be a departure from the norm, purely for the circumstances of this small tranche of changes, or does this presage a broader thought that the Government would in future not propose to use public inquiries if local authority boundaries are to be changed? What is the thinking behind that?