Clause 16
Local Democracy, Economic Developmentand Construction Bill [Lords]
6:30 pm
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State (Pensions Reform; Minister for Yorkshire and Humber), Department for Work and Pensions; Doncaster Central, Labour)
I certainly have some sympathy with the amendment and its attempt to protect junior local authority officers from being required to attend meetings under the clause. The hon. Member for North Cornwall mentioned some of the meetings that we, as MPs, have attended, where junior officers have been put under considerable pressure. I think that brings home to us the importance of ensuring that the correct safeguards are in place.
We want to ensure that certain officers can be required to attend meetings, and to start with, we have set out some methods. For example, in subsection (3), the authority’s petition scheme must specify how many signatures will be needed to require an officer to attend a public hearing. That gives the local authority some discretion. We are also looking at other provisions. For example, under the Local Government Act 2003, any officer of the authority can be required to give evidence at a meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee. That is one way in which local authorities call officers to account.
At the moment in the Bill, it is for authorities themselves to determine which of their officers will be liable to be called to give evidence by petition. If the petitions are to have a meaningful impact, it is important that the most senior officers can certainly be called upon. That is why under the clause, as a minimum, petition schemes will provide that the head of paid service—often known as the chief executive—and the most senior officers responsible for the delivery of services can be required to provide information on their activities at public meetings of overview and scrutiny committees.
We certainly want to ensure that, in our guidance, when we have consulted closely with local authorities and others, we reach a situation where junior officers would not be subjected to inappropriate public pressure as a result of the clause. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that we will make that clear in the guidance that we intend to issue to aid local authorities in interpreting the legislation. I hope that that offers some reassurance to him.