Clause 3
Local Democracy, Economic Developmentand Construction Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Julia Goldsworthy (Falmouth and Camborne, Liberal Democrat)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Amess. As the hon. Gentleman said, our concerns are in the same vein as those expressed about clause 2. It is not clear why only principal authorities should have a duty to promote the understanding of the organisations listed in clause 3, just as it was not clear in relation to the bodies included in clause 2. It is also not clear why there is no reciprocal duty for the bodies to promote an understanding of their own arrangements and local authorities’ arrangements.
That leads us to conclude that the clauses serve only to highlight what a dog’s breakfast the current arrangements are, and how confusing it is for a member of the public who seeks to understand not only what all these organisations do, but their complaints procedures, accountability processes and so on. They are completely different from organisation to organisation, but rather than attempting to streamline that process or to consider how complicated things are from the point of view of the people who receive those public services, it seems that the Government have simply palmed off the responsibility. Rather than explaining something that is complicated and incomprehensible to most people, they have given the responsibility to the local authorities, and said, “It is your job to explain that.”