§ POWER OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO PROSECUTE OR DEFEND LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.
§ Mr. Graham PageI beg to move Amendment No. 658, in page 155, line 26, after 'area', insert '(a)'.
I suggest that with this we should take Amendment No. 659.
These Amendments enable local authorities to assert or defend a public right in civil proceedings in their own name and without having to proceed by realtor action, that is, by joining the Attorney-General, and thereby give effect to a promise I gave the hon. Member for Widnes (Mr. Oakes) in Committee. Local authorities are competent enough bodies to bring actions in their own name and it is absurd to continue the formality in civil proceedings of bringing an action in the name of the Attorney-General.
This does not apply to criminal proceedings. While a local authority, as may an individual, may lay information leading to a prosecution in a criminal case and may either conduct the case, on a strict legal analysis the prosecution is in the name of the Queen, except certain types of case which are brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Attorney-General, or a Government Department. This relief of a local authority from the formality of bringing an action in the name of the Attorney-General applies to civil proceedings, but not to criminal proceedings.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§
Amendment made: No. 659, in page 155, line 27, leave out 'or represent' and insert:
'and, in the case of civil proceedings, may institute them in their own name, and
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(b) they may, in their own name, make representations in the interests of'.—[Mr. Graham Page.]