HL Deb 20 June 1984 vol 453 cc285-7

2.48 p.m.

Baroness Nicol

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many members of local authorities have been or are about to be appointed to the new water boards and whether there is any water board which does not include a local authority representative.

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, my right honourable friend announced most of the membership of the newly constituted boards of the regional water authorities last September, and five additional members were announced during the following months. Your Lordships' House was promised during the passage of the Water Act 1983 that between two and four members of each authority would be drawn from local government nominations. Out of a total of 114 appointees, 32 are also serving members of local authorities; no regional authority has fewer than two councillors among its membership; one has six.

Baroness Nicol

My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for that reply, and am very glad indeed to learn that the Government have kept their promise in regard to local authorities. Is the Minister aware that of those 32 local authority members only five belong to district councils? Will the Minister agree that the responsibilities of the district council are very much in line with the responsibilities of the water authorities and it is therefore very important that they should be represented? When replacements are being made in future will he therefore ask that this imbalance should be corrected?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, I do not think I can agree that there is an unhealthy imbalance between the tiers of local authorities. The composition of the boards varies between authorities; but overall there are 19 county councillors, including the metropolitan county councils and the GLC, and 13 district councillors, including the metropolitan district councils and the London boroughs. As I said, there are 13 district councillors, including borough councillors.

Lord Winstanley

My Lords, is the Minister in a position to tell the House of progress in the setting up of the new consumer consultative committees which I understand the water authorities are now appointing? May we know whether the consumers will be given any say in who will be appointed to represent them? May we know also whether local authorities will have an automatic right to membership of these consumer consultative committees?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, to take the questions of the noble Lord, Lord Winstanley, in reverse order, local authorities do not have an automatic right because, as I said in my Answer to the original Question, there are local authority members on the executive boards of the water authorities. The first meetings of consumer consultative committees are being held at the moment and the remainder will follow during the summer. As to how members are being selected, this will be done by a combination of public advertisements for household consumers and by nomination by representative bodies. Ultimately, the appointment is in the hands of the individual water authority itself.

Lord Dean of Beswick

My Lords, does the Minister not agree that on the basis of the figures he has given the proportion of seats in total held by local authority representatives is far too low in a democratic society? Will he not consider approaching the Secretary of State in this regard to see whether the boards could be enlarged in order to make more places available for representatives of local government at various levels?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, as I am sure the noble Lord will remember—because he was a Whip in another place at the time—the Water Act 1983 had as its rationale the streamlining of what were then very large water authority boards, to make them executive boards equivalent to private sector Companies Act companies. From two to four local authority representatives on the boards was agreed (after much discussion in another place and in your Lordships' House) to be about the right balance for the kind of objective the Government had in mind for water authorities.

Lord Taylor of Blackburn

My Lords, can the Minister say whether these people are representatives or nominees, because there is a difference between the two?

Lord Skelmersdale

My Lords, a local authority member is of course a representative member of local authority, although he has other roles to fulfil. But the water authority members themselves—whether from a local authority or any other background—are appointees of the Secretary of State.

Baroness Nicol

My Lords, I am very glad that the total number of district councillors is greater than I thought. But on the basis of my information from the ADC, does the Minister not agree that there are five water authorities having no district council representa- tive or nominee? These are: Northumbria, Severn-Trent, South West, Thames, and Yorkshire. Is the Minister aware of that fact?

Lord Skelmersdale

No, my Lords, I was not aware of that. I will check on the situation and, if I may, write to the noble Baroness about those particular points. I do not see that it matters that a district councillor is necessarily a member of each water authority. What matters is that the Government's commitment that there would be from two to four local authority representatives as appointees on the water authorities, which was given during the passage of this Bill through your Lordships' House, has been fulfilled. I am glad that in her first supplementary question the noble Baroness recognised the fulfilment of that commitment.