Clause 2
Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]
12:30 pm
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State (Pensions Reform; Minister for Yorkshire and Humber), Department for Work and Pensions; Doncaster Central, Labour)
The hon. Lady will know that Regional Select Committees were set up under House rules. By that logic, she would not want to participate in any Select Committee. Frankly, if she wished to attend the Select Committee, she would presumably have the nous to ask a question and to make suggestions about how it would operate. I am at a loss to know why she does not want to take the opportunity to represent people in her area on an important Committee, which could ask RDAs to come to the House to answer questions. She is obviously not interested in pursuing that route but prefers to stand on the sidelines quibbling about whether they have had meetings.
Several Opposition Members asked about how the different strategic health authorities are selected and the criteria for inclusion in the list. First, anybody with a strong local presence in the area has democratic arrangements as per the definition in the Bill. There are opportunities for the public to influence or take part in the making of decisions. That includes attending public meetings, contributing to consultation forums, making representations to elected representatives on the body, or standing for a role themselves.
I draw the Committee’s attention to the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which includes a strengthened NHS duty to involve users in decisions about service planning and development. Secondly, there is a duty on PCTs and SHAs that commission health services to report back to communities about the action that they are taking in response to public feedback to consultation.
There are also local involvement networks. A woman came to my surgery on Friday from the local Alzheimer’s society asking how she could get involved in influencing decision making about services in the local area for people with Alzheimer’s. I told her that it would be a good idea to get involved with the LINk. She replied that she did not know about it and would be interested in joining. We have to grasp some of the principles here, because people can feel that they have no influence over some of these organisations. We in Parliament have set out ways for people to be involved, whether in shaping decisions about health care, social services, the police or other organisations. Some of the proposals have been made in response to Liberal Democrat amendments tabled in the Lords, particularly in relation to parish councils. If through legislation in this House we have given people the opportunity to participate in that decision-making process or to be consulted on the delivery of vital services, we should do what we can to encourage a wider understanding about how that operates. That is not something that we should resile from.
The hon. Member for Wycombe made the point about being able to add other agencies at a later date. I am sure that he understands that it would be foolish to not allow for other organisations to be added at a later date if it was felt appropriate. We would not want to have to come back to primary legislation to do that; we would want to do it by secondary legislation.