Clause 27
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
9:30 am
Alistair Burt (Shadow Minister (Communities and Local Government), Communities and Local Government; North East Bedfordshire, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Nobody knows which bids will be accepted, but all the authorities are potentially in a hiatus. I do not know whether the procedure that local authoritiesare going through requires them to submit to the Government a list of contracts or potential contracts that they are negotiating. I do not know whether the Minister has such a list.
Amendment Nos. 53 and 54 are not asking for some great spend-up by authorities, but would provide those authorities with some flexibility to make their own decisions in the next few months. The authorities know the process through which they are going, and that they have to prove certain abilities to the Government if they are to have their bids for unitary status accepted, so they are hardly likely to be in a position tomake crass decisions or behave irresponsibly. The amendments recognise that sense of responsibility and would give authorities the flexibility to make their own decisions for a period, notwithstanding the bid procedure.
The amendments test out what the Government means by devolution and control. The Government could take the power and authorities should behave responsibly. However, here is a situation in which authorities are very likely to behave responsibly and do the work that they need to do. They do not know what the future will hold, but for six months or more, they could be in the position of being unable to make contractual decisions on their own account. I would therefore argue that there are perfectly valid reasons why they should be able to carry on, as opposed to having an arbitrary date forced upon them.