HL Deb 23 July 2001 vol 626 cc1675-7

3.10 p.m.

Lord Peyton of Yeovil

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many "Best Value Officers" have been appointed under the Local Government Act 1999; and how useful they have proved to be.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, the information requested is not held centrally. Decisions on officer responsibilities on best value are up to each authority. But whatever titles are used, best value is mainstream business and should be central to the work of all local authority staff. Authorities need to concentrate on performance and delivering step change in local services.

Lord Peyton of Yeovil

My Lords, while I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord for that reply, I am left wondering what are the functions of best value officers, what are their qualifications for performing those functions and what form of reward they receive for doing so. If by any chance some of these gentlemen have some spare time on their hands, perhaps the noble and learned Lord will consider trying to make arrangements for them to be lent to, say, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly to assist with their building projects?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, the purpose of best value is to ensure that local authorities spend their money economically, efficiently and effectively. They spend more than £50 billion of public money. It seems entirely appropriate that local authorities should prepare plans to enable the public to see how they will deliver those objectives.

Baroness Hamwee

My Lords, when the legislation was going through the House Ministers gave assurances that the performance indicators which local authorities are asked to address would be reviewed quickly and, indeed, that local authorities would be given the opportunity to set their own performance indicators because, as we all know, money spent locally is best spent when it addresses local circumstances. Can the Minister give us any news on that?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, that assurance was given. It takes time to develop the right number of performance indicators. The number of performance indicators that authorities are required to monitor has been cut by about a third to reduce the burden on local authorities.

Lord King of West Bromwich

My Lords, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council—of which I was leader until 22nd May 2001—introduced best value in a big way. It has made a marked improvement in our service delivery to the people of Sandwell. The cost of introducing the best value system was relatively lower than it would have been if that same amount of work had been undertaken by consultants. Furthermore, we believe that the long-term benefits will be substantially greater. Does the Minister agree that the introduction of best value was a much needed and overdue initiative?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, I agree with my noble friend that the best value regime was overdue and was needed. I also agree with him that it has brought considerable benefits to the people who receive local authority services, including the people of Sandwell to whom my noble friend referred.

Baroness Carnegy of Lour

My Lords, the noble and learned Lord said that this is all about delivering step change in local services. What does that mean?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, I d o not recall using either of those terms. I said that the purpose of best value is to ensure that money is spent economically, effectively and efficiently. I believe that that is what all of us would want.

Baroness Carnegy of Lour

My Lords, the noble and learned Lord talked about delivering step change in local services. I do not know what that is. I do not know whether other noble Lords know, but I hope that the Minister will define the meaning of that phrase.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, it is to improve the services delivered by local authorities in a meaningful and clear way.

Lord Woolmer of Leeds

My Lords, is my noble and learned friend aware that, certainly in Leeds, the system has brought significant savings and has enabled the council to find new ways of doing things and to provide truly best value for money? Is he further aware that local government believes that it has broken away from the climate of survival under competitive tendering and has entered one that welcomes change and enables councils to find truly best value and a better way of doing things?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, I am aware that best value has resulted in material improvement in the services delivered by many, many councils. I refer to a significant statistic; namely, that 87 per cent of chief executives of local authorities when asked said that they would have produced a best value performance plan even if they had not been required to do so. Surely any organisation should look at the services it delivers, determine what is the most effective way to deliver them and tell its clients how it is doing that. That is surely the least that people can expect.

Lord Tebbit

My Lords, does the Minister wish that he had had a best value officer beside him when he was the Minister responsible for the Dome?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, best value can bring improvements everywhere.

Lord Christopher

My Lords, before asking the Minister a question, I should perhaps first declare a past interest in that I served for six years on the Audit Commission. Much of that time was spent trying to get the word "value" into compulsory competitive tendering, which lasted for 18 years and did, I believe, a great deal of damage to local authorities. After just a year's experience of the new system incorporating value, does he see great possibilities of success under the new regime?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, while discussing this question local authority leaders have mentioned the effectiveness of best value. It is much more effective than compulsory competitive tendering as that focused only on a very small number of services and focused only on obtaining the cheapest service, not the best.

Lord Bowness

My Lords, perhaps I may ask the Minister the question that I put to his noble friend Lord Whitty on 10th May, and which he—I am sure inadvertently—did not address in replying. Can the noble and learned Lord tell the House whether the inspection of the system is costing more or less than the £50 million that it was estimated it would cost?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, I am not in a position to comment on the precise cost of that but I shall write to the noble Lord.

Lord Peyton of Yeovil

My Lords, on the strength of what the noble and learned Lord has said, does he realise that he and the Government deserve the warmest congratulations on this splendid measure? Does he also realise that we simply cannot wait for the time when best value officers are imported into every government department?

Lord Falconer of Thoroton

My Lords, the measure brings to local government accountability, effectiveness, efficiency and the economic use of resources. That is a good thing.