HL Deb 16 July 1999 vol 604 cc635-6

Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 26th May be approved [21st Report from the Joint Committee].

The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I beg to move. This contracting-out order seeks to allow local highway authorities to delegate, where they wish to do so, a wide range of operational decisions about road maintenance to private sector contractors. Such delegation is most likely to occur in local authority private finance initiative roads projects, although the order does not specify this as a limitation.

The order before the House today should benefit local authorities and their private contractors alike. This order will reduce the bureaucracy and improve efficiency by giving private sector contractors powers that they need to carry out the responsibilities for managing their contracts effectively. For example, a private contractor will no longer have to ask the local highway authority to get a badly positioned builder's skip removed or re-positioned. The order gives the contractor the power to deal directly with the owner of the skip. This should be particularly helpful in providing value for money in contracts, such as PFI contracts with the private sector. The additional flexibility should feed back the cost of the operation and be reflected in the contract price.

The order is permissive. It gives local highway authorities the power to delegate functions. Although the order provides a menu of powers, the authority will delegate only those functions it sees as appropriate and will not be under any obligation to delegate functions should it not wish to do so. This will ensure that local authorities retain all the responsibility and control that they require in order to ensure good service to the local population, while giving them flexibility when they choose.

The order will have major benefits for the maintenance of local roads operating under a PFI contract. It will allow PFI contractors to assume a local highway authority's statutory responsibility for the functions which the local authority has delegated for the duration of the contract, which could be 25 to 30 years. These are not novel powers; the powers in this order are similar to those in the 1995 statutory instrument No. 1986, which enables the Secretary of State to contract out certain of his statutory functions as the highway authority for the trunk road and motorway network. The corresponding order before the House today will allow local highway authorities to enjoy similar benefits.

As a consequence of this order, the local highway authority will remain responsible for its network. Nothing in the order reduces the range of those responsibilities. The underlying purpose of our approach is to widen the range of options available to local highway authorities for managing and maintaining their networks effectively and efficiently. The order under consideration today will help that process forward. I commend the order to the House.

Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 26th May be approved [21st Report from the Joint Committee].—(Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton.)

Lord Brabazon of Tara

My Lords, we very much welcome the order on this side of the House. Indeed, judging by the words that the noble Baroness used when introducing the order, it could have come from a Conservative Minister—encouraging, as it does, the private sector to work with local authorities, contracting out, and so on. Therefore, I am very pleased that the noble Baroness and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions now see the sense in encouraging private sector involvement in this area.

On Question, Motion agreed to.