Local Government - February 2009

Government Bills affecting Local Government

Leaving to one side the suggestion that the general election (which must happen before June 2010) will prevent this Parliament passing any significant legislation, this is an account of the Government Bills currently before Parliament, or about to be promoted, that affect local authorities. We have gratefully adopted a great deal of Government text, but cut out some of the smug bits.

This is a very short summary of the headlines to save you having to read further:

The Business Rate Supplements Bill will give top tier authorities the ability to levy an extra business rate and keep the income for economic development.
The Child Poverty Bill will do something to eradicate child poverty, but whether this will be more than fine words and something about benefits take-up remains to be seen.
The Children, Skills and Learning Bill will tinker with training, qualifications, school standards and Childrens Trusts.
The Community Empowerment Bill picks up a bundle of White Paper promises including loosening the politically restricted posts rules, introducing the much derided idea of remote voting at local authority meetings and the equally curious idea of voting incentives, making even more changes to the law on parishes, making it easier to petition for an elected mayor and changing the ceremonial “freedom” regime to reintroduce aldermen and alderwomen.
The Coroners and Justice Bill will create a new national Coroners Service.
The Equality Bill will outlaw age discrimination, authorise more “positive action”, and consolidate the equalities laws.
The Floods and Water Bill will rehash the arrangements for flood and coastal erosion risk management.
The Health Bill will give the NHS a new constitution, boost direct payments, make it harder for children to buy cigarettes and extend the Ombudsman’s remit in adult social care.
The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill will place local authorities under a duty to promote democracy, extend scrutiny powers and create a new “scrutiny officer”, oblige local authorities to adopt a complicated scheme for responding to petitions, impose new duties to assess economic conditions and produce regional strategies, working through RDAs and regional “Leaders Boards”, and allow auditors to audit “entities” connected with local authorities.
The Marine and Coastal Access Bill will reconstruct the bodies responsible for things coastal and fishy, and set up a process for creating a big coastal footpath.
The Policing and Crime Bill will seek to make the police even more inclusive, toughen the law on prostitution and drinking in public, ensure lap dancing clubs need sex establishment licenses and bring Probation Authorities officially into Crime and Reduction Partnerships.
The Political Parties and Elections Bill, left over from the last Parliament, will make changes in the election expenses and party funding rules and make it easier to change the electoral register in the run up to an election.
The Welfare Bill will generally toughen up the benefits system, permit regulations on direct payments to disabled people and require both parents to register a birth.

If you want more details of what the Government says these Bills are going to do, read on.

Business Rate Supplements Bill
The purpose of the Bill is to give upper tier local authorities (County Councils, Unitary Authorities and, in London, the Greater London Authority) the power to levy a local supplement on the business rate and retain the proceeds for economic development.

The main elements of the Bill are:

Creating a new power for upper tier local authorities to levy a local supplement on the business rate and to retain the proceeds for investment in that area
Providing safeguards for business, including: a requirement that proceeds should be spent on economic development; consultation and, in certain circumstances, a ballot of businesses that would be affected, a national upper limit to the levy of 2p per £1 of rateable value; an exemption for all properties with a rateable value of £50,000 or less;
Flexibility for authorities to: decide the duration of the supplement; reduce liability for the supplement for properties above the £50,000 threshold; and to decide whether to offset Business Improvement Districts levies against liability for the supplement.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmbills/002/09002.i-ii.html

Child Poverty Bill
The purpose of the Bill is to give new impetus to Government’s commitment and ensure a focus across government on ending child poverty for the long term. The Bill will enshrine in law the commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020. The Government is setting up a taskforce of experts from local authorities and the third sector which will report in spring 2009. It will assist local authorities in further improving take up of tax credits and benefits.

Children, Skills and Learning Bill
A Children, Skills and Learning bill would reform education, training and apprenticeships for young people and adults, provide new powers to strengthen children’s trusts, improve standards in schools and increase confidence in qualifications.

Civil Law Reform Bill
The exact content of the Bill is still to be settled but the Bill is likely to include proposals in the following areas:

Reform of the law relating to damages – in particular in relation to dependency claims and bereavement damages under the fatal Accidents Act 1976
Reform of the Limitation Act 1980 – how long a claimant has to take civil legal proceedings
Reform of the law relating to the rule of forfeiture and the law of succession
Reform of the law in relation to Pre-judgment interest – giving the Lord Chancellor to specify rates of interest by order.

Community Empowerment Bill
This draft Bill will enhance local democracy and empower communities by allowing Government to meet key commitments made in the 2008 White Paper ‘Communities in Control: Real People, Real Power’. The Bill is planned to include measures to

enhance local democracy and empower communities
amend politically restricted posts
enable remote voting for councillors
introduce voting incentives
modernise provisions around parish councils
remove the barriers to directly electing mayors
recognise the contributions of alderwomen and local people through reform of honorary and hereditary freedoms.

Coroners and Justice Bill
The main elements of the Bill are:

Creation of a new national coroner service, led by a new Chief Coroner, moving towards whole time coroners working within flexible jurisdictions and to national minimum standards, with powers to commission non-invasive post-mortems where appropriate, and complying with a charter of services for bereaved families;
Creation of a new system of secondary certification of deaths that are not referred to the coroner, covering both burials and cremations
Reform of the law on homicide
Amendments to the Data Protection Act to strengthen the inspection powers of the Information Commissioner and to remove barriers to the sharing of information
Re-enacting the provisions of the emergency Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Act 2008 so that the courts may continue to grant anonymity to vulnerable or intimidated witnesses, and making provision for the courts to grant Investigative Witness Anonymity Orders in certain gun and knife crime cases
Extending the use of special measures in criminal proceedings (such as the use of live video links and screens around the witness box) so that vulnerable and intimidated witnesses can give their best evidence
Amendments to sentencing and other legislation to support implementation of the Framework Decision on taking about of convictions in the Member States of the European Union in the course of new criminal proceedings.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmbills/009/2009009.pdf

Equality Bill
The main elements of the Bill are:

Banning age discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities or services and public functions. Things that benefit older people, such as free bus passes, will still be allowed.
Increasing transparency in the workplace.
A single equality duty, which will require public bodies to consider the diverse needs and requirements of their workforce, and the communities they serve, when developing employment policies and when planning services
Extending positive action measures to allow employers to make their organisation or business more representative
Allowing political parties to use all-women shortlists beyond 2015
Reducing nine major pieces of legislation, and around 100 statutory instruments into a single Act.

Floods and Water Bill
The main areas the bill will focus on are:

A joined-up, modern day approach to flood and coastal erosion risk management
Simplified and rationalised funding arrangements
Improved and more focused risk management of reservoir safety.
Measures to facilitate adaptation, resistance and resilience to the effects of climate change on water resources, particularly on the increasing severity of flood events, and to facilitate land management which supports flood and coastal erosion risk management.

Health Bill

Places a duty on providers and commissioners of NHS services to have regard to a new NHS Constitution, which will set out the responsibilities of patients and staff
Introduces direct payments for health services with the intention of giving patients greater control over the health care services they receive
Introduces quality accounts, which would provide information on quality for patients, clinicians and managers, with the aim of improving local accountability for services
Makes provisions to protect children and young people from the harm caused by smoking. These provisions relate particularly to advertising and sales from vending machines.
Extends the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman to consider complaints from people who have arranged their own adult social care
Introduces a scheme by which prizes for innovation in health service provision may be awarded.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldbills/018/2009018.pdf

Immigration Simplification Bill
The purpose of the Bill is to replace the many existing Immigration Acts, dating back to 1971, with a single, simplified Act.

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill
Published December 2008 includes:

Provisions to secure greater involvement of people in the workings and decision-making processes of local public authorities (the duty to promote democracy, the extension of the duty to involve, scrutiny enhancement including new statutory officer)
Provisions to ensure that councils respond to petitions and can consider other matters raised by citizens in their area (duty to make a Petitions Scheme)
A new duty for local authorities to assess economic conditions; a joint duty on regional development agencies and local authorities “Leaders’ Boards” to produce a single regional strategy; and powers for councils to co-operate in promoting economic development. Power to establish regional or sub regional Economic Prosperity Boards. Legislative basis for MAAs.
Establishing a new body (National Tenant Voice) to represent the interests of housing tenants in England at national level.
New powers for audit authorities to appoint auditors to, and to produce public interest reports on, entities connected with local authorities
Making the Boundary Committee for England a separate body from the Electoral Commission
Improving the operation of construction contracts particularly as regards cash flow and adjudication.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/Id200809/Idbills/002/2009002.pdf

Marine and Coastal Access Bill

Sets up a new Marine Management Organisation under which many of the existing, diverse areas of marine regulation would be centralised
Streamlines the existing marine licensing system and provides powers to create a joined-up marine planning policy
Introduces new measures to reform fisheries management
Provides a framework for establishing marine conservation zones
Enables the creation of a walkable route around the English coast.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldbills/001/2009001.pdf

Policing and Crime Bill
The main provisions will:

Place an additional duty on police authorities to have regard to the public’s views on policing in their area, and to require HMIC to report on this as part of their inspections of police authorities
Create new offences of paying for sex with someone who is controlled for gain, and of soliciting, and giving the courts the power to make premises closure orders.
Amend how lap dancing is licensed so that it is treated in the same way as other sex establishments
Amend the civil orders that can be imposed on sex offenders.
Amend police powers to deal with young people drinking alcohol in public, raise the maximum penalties for those premises that sell alcohol to young people and those people who refuse to stop drinking in public when instructed to by the police.
Allow the Secretary of State to create mandatory alcohol licensing conditions.
Provisions to give police, other law enforcement agencies, and prosecutors additional powers aimed at improving the recovery of criminal assets.
Provisions relating to extradition
A new process designed to enhance airport security planning by ensuring airports undertake an assessment of the threats to the airport and draw up a risk register
Provisions for the Criminal Records Bureau to supply criminal convictions certificates to employers and to include “right to work” information on standard and enhanced disclosures.
Changing the name of the Independent Barring Board to the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) and enabling volunteers who initially become registered with the ISA to be charged a fee when they move into paid activity. Provisions also make changes relating to the checking of school governors in particular.
Extending football banning orders to Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Provisions to clarify the respective powers of the Scottish Executive and the UK Government to ban offensive weapons to ensure import controls are consistent across the UK.
Placing the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency on the same footing as police forces and the Serious Organised Crime Agency in terms of dealing with an armed threat and purchasing and storing CS sprays and firearms
Probation Authorities will also become a responsible authority on a Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) in England and Community Safety Partnership (CSP) in Wales and “reduce re-offending” will become a statutory obligation of a CDRP/CSP.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmbills/007/2009007.pdf

Political Parties and Elections Bill
The Bill makes some amendments to the regulation of party funding and election expenditure that is set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

The Bill aims to:

Strengthen the regulatory powers of the Electoral Commission, to provide new powers of investigation and the option of civil sanctions
Enable political parties to put forward four extra Electoral Commissioners and relax political restrictions on staff of the Commission
Alter the definition of ‘election expenses’ and ‘candidate’ in the Representation of the People Act 1983 to take into account spending on elections prior to the dissolution of Parliament
Place further requirements on parties and donors to clarify the source of donations
Amend the Representation of the People Act to provide a more flexible system for adding to the register of electors when an election is called while the register is being updated.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmbills/004/2009004.pdf

Welfare Reform Bill

Reforms the benefits system by abolishing Income Support and moving all claimants on to either Jobseekers’ Allowance if they are well or Employment and Support Allowance if they are sick
Aligns the contribution conditions between Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker’s Allowance
Introduces a regime of benefit sanctions for non-attendance at Jobcentres
Requires job search by partners of benefit claimants
Abolishes Adult Dependency Increases in the Carer’s Allowance and Maternity Allowance
Introduces work-focused interviews for over-60s
Requires work-related activity in return for receipt of Employment and Support Allowance
Permits regulations on direct payments to disabled people
Introduces a requirement for births to be registered jointly by both parents
Provides additional powers for the enforcement of child maintenance arrears.

Graeme Creer
Weightmans LLP