§ Sir George Young (Ealing, Acton)I beg to move amendment No. 2, in page 6, line 40, at end, insert—
`(c) to secure that the officer is a person who appears to have the requisite knowledge and experience to discharge the functions of the monitoring officer. Either the monitoring officer or deputy monitoring officer should be a barrister, advocate or solicitor called or admitted in any part of the United Kingdom or a member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.'.The amendment is inspired by the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and it seeks to define the qualifications required by the monitoring officer.The monitoring officer will be responsible for drawing the attention of the authority to any decision or omission which contravenes any rules of law or conventions binding the authority which would result in maladministration. Therefore, the monitoring officer will need a working knowledge of local government legislation and any local conventions that are binding. He will also need to know of any actions which result in maladministration or injustice by the authority.
The monitoring officer will also be required to monitor
any proposal, decision or omission by the authority, by any committee, sub-committee or officers".Therefore, a knowledge of local authority committee structures and procedures would be a distinct advantage.The amendment ensures that the monitoring officer or his deputy is either a lawyer or a member of the institute to which I have referred, and it would require the authority to appoint an officer who would have the knowledge and experience to do the duties in a professional and thorough 790 manner. It would also ensure that the public would be assured that councillors receive and act upon sound professional advice.
§ Mr. GummerI have sympathy with my hon. Friend but I hope that he will accept that, on balance, it is better not to increase the number of requirements wherever that is not utterly necessary. It is up to the local authority to decide who should be the monitoring officer. I am not entirely convinced that it is right to make it a kind of closed shop of particular people with particular qualifications. In general, it is likely that monitoring officers will be in possession of one or other of those qualifications, but that will not always be so and in some local authorities the person who is the obvious choice will not fall into those categories. It is much better that the local authority should have that decision in its own hands.
I hope that my hon. Friend will agree that the care with which I have sought to listen to and discuss with the bodies representing those various groups shows that I have a high view of the responsibilities and personal needs of those senior officers. However, in the end, it is better to leave this to the decision of the local authority. I assure my hon. Friend that I shall keep a close eye on what happens, and if there is a future need to do something of the kind that he suggests, no doubt we can return to the matter.
§ Sir George YoungI am overwhelmed by the clarity and logic of my hon. Friend's reply, and I do not wish to press the matter further. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
§
Amendments made: No. 275, in page 7, line 42, leave out from 'obligations)' to end of line 44, and insert
'or otherwise, to ensure that no step is taken for giving effect to any proposal or decision to which such a report relates at any time while the implementation of the proposal or decision is suspended in consequence of the report'.
No. 276, in page 7, line 48, at end insert—
'(5A) For the purposes of paragraph (b) of subsection (5) above the implementation of a proposal or decision to which a report under this section relates shall be suspended in consequence of the report until the end of the first business day after the day in which consideration of that report under paragraph (a) of that subsection is concluded.'.
No. 277, in page 8, line 6, at end insert—
'"business day", in relation to a relevant authority, means any day which is not a Saturday or Sunday, Christmas Day, Good. Friday or any day which is a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 in the part of Great Britain where the area of the authority is situated;'.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonI beg to move amendment No. 232, in page 8, line 18, leave out 'regional, islands or district council' and insert 'local authority'.
Mr. Deputy SpeakerWith this we may take Government amendments Nos. 233, 234, 237, 238, 235 and 236.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe amendments all serve to correct drafting errors or inconsistencies.
§ Mr. John Maxton (Glasgow, Cathcart)In nearly all Scottish local government legislation of which I am aware, the terminology region, island and district authority is fairly standard, and yet the Minister appears to be changing his mind and introducing in the Bill something rather different. Is the Minister engaged in some wily plot to introduce local government reform at a later stage?
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonI reassure the hon. Gentleman that I have no hidden agendas in that respect. The expression "local authorities" is defined for Scotland in clause 18(2) as meaning
a regional, islands or district council or a joint board or joint committee within the meaning of section 235(1) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.Any joint committee that is a corporate body falls within the meaning of "joint board". As we do not want the definition to embrace unincorporated joint committees, we require to delete the words "or joint committee". I will ensure that the relevant provisions will apply as intended to regional, islands or district councils and to corporate joint bodies, but not to unincorporated joint committees. The reasoning for that is that an unincorporated joint committee is not primarily responsible for the discharge of functions. Amendment No. 237 also concerns a drafting error, but I am sure that the hon. Gentleman does not wish me to pursue that.
§ Amendment agreed to.