Agenda and minutes

            Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Councillors M. Browne and McCann.

            In pursuance of its decision of 9th October, the Committee met to receive from Mr. Edwin Poots, M.L.A., the Minister for the Environment, an update on the overall Review of Public Administration programme.

            The Chairman (Councillor Hartley), on behalf of the Committee, welcomed the Minister to the meeting.

            The Minister thanked the Committee for agreeing to receive him.  He pointed out that there had been speculation that Local Government reform would not proceed because it was too costly and would not produce savings.  He stated that he wanted to put an end to those rumours and make it absolutely clear that Local Government Reform was proceeding and that he was committed to delivering it successfully.  He pointed out that his office had published recently the PricewaterhouseCoopers Economic Appraisal Report and he was confident that, if the right political choices were made, proceeding with Local Government Reform made absolute sense in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and value-for-money.

            The Minister indicated that he was aware that a lot of the work which had been undertaken to date had related to policy development for legislation and had been carried out largely by the Policy Development Panels and the Strategic Leadership Board.  The legislation would be encompassed within four Bills: 1) the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which was already before the Assembly and had just completed its Committee Stage; 2) the Local Government (Finance) Bill, which would modernise the financial framework within which Local Government would work and on which consultation had just been completed with a view to the Bill being introduced to the Assembly in January, 2010, and two Bills which were still being developed and which would give effect to the reorganisation of Local Government and the reform and transfer of planning functions.

            The Minister then answered a number of questions which were put to him by Members of the Committee.  A copy of the questions and the Minister’s responses is set out hereunder:

“Q1.Could the Minister please confirm the proposed timetable for the Review of Public Administration and its component parts?

         Answer

         ‘The Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which will enable regulations to be made to establish Statutory Transition Committees is already before the Assembly and has just completed its Committee Stage.  I am hopeful it will complete the rest of its passage through the Assembly in the next month or so with a view to it receiving Royal Assent by the end of the year.  This would allow for the Statutory Transition Committees to be formed in early 2010.

         The Local Government (Finance) Bill, will modernise the financial framework within which local government will work and the consultation on this has just finished last week.  My officials will now consider the responses with a view to the Bill being introduced into the Assembly in January.

         Policy proposals for the Local Government (Re-organisation) Bill are currently before the Executive and, subject to agreement; I propose to publish those proposals for consultation this month.

         Boundaries

         The Local Government  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2a