Local Government Reform (Hansard, 14 April 1993)

§ Mr. Davidson
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what effect he expects the transfer of undertakings (protection of employees) legislation to have on the proposed local government reforms; what cost implications there will be and on which bodies they will fall; and what account was taken of the calculations prepared for his Department by Touche Ross.

§ Mr. Stewart
The question of whether the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations will apply can be determined only in the light of individual circumstances and following careful legal consideration. We envisage that most local authority staff who are currently employed by local authorities will in any case, by one means or another, become the employees of the new authorities. In preparing its report on costs, Touche Ross assumed that all staff would transfer to the new authorities and that any surplus staff would be made redundant by those authorities.

§ Mr. Davidson
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimates he has made of the implications for public sector expenditure over the next five years of the proposed reform of local government in Scotland.

§ Mr. Stewart
The Scottish Office engaged consultants last year to estimate the costs and savings likely to arise from a move to a single-tier structure of local government in Scotland. The consultants' findings are at present being refined in the light of comments on their report. The available evidence suggests that our reform proposals will give rise to transitional costs which will be quickly recovered by savings arising from the new structure. An indication of the likely financial consequences of reform will be included in due course in a White Paper setting out our proposals.

§ Mr. Davidson
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what provision he will make for accountability when transferring existing local authority powers from directly elected Scottish local councils to the Scottish Office and to non-elected bodies.
585W

§ Mr. Stewart
Local authority functions are regularly reviewed. New duties are placed on local government in appropriate circumstances and some functions are assumed at other times by other bodies or agencies. Questions of accountability, service delivery and a range of other issues are given full consideration in each case.

§ Mr. Davidson
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will specify the reasons which underlay the Government's decision to establish a local government commission to inquire into local government reform in England but not in Scotland.

§ Mr. Stewart
The fact that a commission has been appointed in England to consider local government restructuring is not itself a necessary reason for adopting a similar procedure in Scotland. It is appropriate to adopt Scottish solutions to Scottish problems. Similarly, no such commission has been appointed in Wales. The present structure of local government in Scotland and the evidence available from previous reviews mean that the current reform exercise is of a smaller scale and less complex than that in England. The Government have recently completed a very full consultation exercise about the shape of the new single-tier structure to which over 3,300 responses were submitted. These are now being carefully analysed.