Formal minutes
Tuesday 12 May 2009
Members present:
Dr Phyllis Starkey, in the Chair
Mr Clive Betts
John Cummings
Andrew George
| | Emily Thornberry
Mr Neil Turner
David Wright
|
Balance of Power: central and local government
Draft Report (Balance of Power: central and local
government), proposed by the Chairman, brought up and read.
Ordered, That
the Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.
Summary read and postponed.
Paragraphs 1 to 26 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 27 read, amended and agreed to.
Paragraphs 28 to 30 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 30 read, amended and agreed to.
Paragraphs 31 to 38 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 39 read, amended and agreed to.
Paragraphs 40 to 53 read and agreed to.
Paragraph 54 read, amended and agreed to.
Paragraph 55 read and agreed to.
A paragraph—(Andrew George)—brought
up, read the first and second time, amended and inserted (now
paragraph 56).
Paragraphs 56 to 59 (now paragraphs 57 to 60) read
and agreed to.
Paragraph 60 (now paragraph 61) read, amended
and agreed to.
Paragraphs 61 to 82 (now paragraphs 62 to 83)
read and agreed to.
Paragraphs 83 to 94 (now paragraphs 84 to 95) read
and postponed.
Another paragraph—( Andrew George)—brought
up and read, as follows:
'We recommend that the Government place its proposals
for the devolution of decision-making powers to local authorities
on a statutory footing by giving local authorities the power to
acquire an annual audit and performance assessment report for
each of the relevant Government departments for which a full range
of pre-negotiated targets have been set.'
Question put, That the paragraph be read a second
time.
|
Ayes, 1 | Noes, 5 |
Andrew George
| Mr Clive Betts
John Cummings
Emily Thornberry
Mr Neil Turner
David Wright
|
Question accordingly negatived.
Postponed paragraph 83 (now paragraph 84) again read.
Amendment proposed, in line 9, after "innovation.",
to insert
'Equally, we believe that the power relationship
should be more 'balanced' between central and local government.
There should be an opportunity for local government to require
Government departments to produce the material necessary for a
statutory review in respect of their success in delivering a genuinely
devolved settlement for local authorities. We explain this further
in paragraph X below.'.—(Andrew George.)
Question proposed, That the Amendment be made:—Amendment,
by leave, withdrawn.
Postponed paragraphs 84 to 94 (now paragraphs 85
to 95) again read.
Paragraphs agreed to.
Paragraphs 95 to 107 (now paragraphs 96 to 108)
read and agreed to.
A paragraph—(Mr Neil Turner)—brought
up, read the first and second time, amended and inserted (now
paragraph 109).
Paragraph 108 (now paragraph 110) read, amended
and agreed to.
Paragraphs 109 to 117 (now paragraphs 111 to 119)
read and agreed to.
Paragraph 118 (now paragraph 120) read, amended
and agreed to.
Paragraph 119 (now paragraph 121) read, amended
and agreed to.
Paragraphs 120 to 137 (now paragraphs 122 to
139) read and agreed to.
Paragraph 138 (now paragraph 140) read.
Amendment proposed, at the end of the paragraph,
to insert
'However, this Committee should provide a supportive
Parliamentary oversight of a process which should primarily be
led by local authorities through the statutory audit and performance
assessments we have proposed in paragraph X above.'.—(Andrew
George.)
Question proposed, That the Amendment be made:—Amendment,
by leave, withdrawn.
Paragraph agreed to.
Paragraphs 139 to 147 (now paragraphs 141 to
149) read and agreed to.
Annex agreed to.
Summary agreed to.
Resolved, That the Report,
as amended, be the Sixth Report of the Committee to the House.
Ordered, That the Chairman
make the Report to the House.
Written evidence reported to the House and ordered
to be published on 21 October, 3 November and 9 February was ordered
to be reported for printing with the Report.
Ordered, That embargoed
copies of the Report be made available, in accordance with the
provisions of Standing Order No. 134.
[Adjourned till Monday 18 May 2009 at 4.20 p.m.
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