Examination of Witness (Questions 160-165)
1 NOVEMBER 2004
MR RORY
COONAN
Q160 Sir Paul Beresford: I am just following
your thinking over the London hospital example that you gave?
Mr Coonan: If I may say, I think
it is at a tangent to my thinking. The fact that one is not a
member of CABE does not mean that if one is not a member somehow
one is ill-informed. Not everybody can be a member.
Q161 Chris Mole: Coming back to the powers,
you have suggested that CABE should have a power to delay, but
why are you suggesting that might be necessary, given that there
is a function for the Secretary of State there, which presumably,
if CABE were upset or concerned enough, would be flagged up and
could be operated at that level?
Mr Coonan: If, as I understand
it, the Government's intention is to place CABE on a statutory
footing, it seems to me, if one is doing that, it makes sense
to give them some statutory powers, otherwise what is the point
of doing it? If CABE is to become a statutory body, the two powers
I have described and the one of delay I shall describe seem to
me rather important weapons in its armoury, to be used in extremis,
and delay will concentrate the minds of our property developer
friends enormously, because delay means costs. Therefore, if CABE
wished to bring people to the table who were unwilling to listen
to good advice, perhaps not necessarily to take or even to listen
to it, then I think just that reserve power would serve to bring
them to their attention.
Q162 Chris Mole: What about discovery?
Surely the local authority has the power of discovery?
Mr Coonan: They may well do. I
do not know whether that is true. I suspect not. In relation to
CABE, the power of discovering drawings, plans, in other words,
to be shown that which is pertinent and material to the project,
would be a useful power to have in reserve. At the moment these
things are very ill-defined. There is no, as it were, unanimity
or uniformity about the things, the material, that can be submitted.
I suspect it varies very widely from project to project.
Q163 Chairman: In terms of openness,
would you also think the public ought to have the power of discovery
about what goes on in CABE?
Mr Coonan: To the extent that
you review their activities, to the extent that they publish a
report, to the extent that they are audited perhaps ad nauseam,
as many public bodies are, by their sponsor departments, I think
probably that is sufficient. I do not believe personally in what
I call the "fake demotic" of public hearings on every
conceivable topic. I think the public is well served by CABE,
and I have made suggestions about how it could be served better,
but I do not think holding these things in public will really
add to the sum of knowledge.
Q164 Sir Paul Beresford: Even if they
are given the semi-dictatorial power that you would like them
to have, in extremis?
Mr Coonan: The powers I have described,
Sir Paul, are only powers of being given information and having
an influence on people's proposals. They are not powers of enforcement,
because I have not suggested that CABE should be anything other
than the advisory body that it is.
Q165 Chairman: Surely, if they are going
to influence, as they might well do as a result of this, some
very major decisions, has not the public got a right to know how
they reach the decisions which then exercise the influence?
Mr Coonan: CABE publishes accounts
of its proceedings, and no doubt, in the next five years of its
existence, it will improve and streamline how it does that, and
that is much to be desired.
Chairman: Thank you very much for your
evidence.
|
