Details of Decentralisation and Localism Bill set out in Queen's Speech

May 25, 2010

The Queen's Speech has set out the details of its Decentralisation and Localism Bill, which is set to radically shake-up many aspects of council governance and responsibility, and a number of other bills with significant implications for local government.

The Decentralisation and Localism Bill, which is expected to be presented to Parliament in the Autumn, includes changes to planning laws, housing policy and constitutional arrangements and is the mechanism by which many of the coalition government's recently-announced policy measures for local government will be implemented. It will also introduce a general power of competence for local authorities.

If passed, the Decentralisation and Localism Bill will be the instrument that ends Regional Spatial Strategies, with regional planning powers being returned to local authorities. It abolishes the Infrastructure Planning Commission, to be replaced with a new “fast-track and democratically accountable” process for major infrastructure projects.

The Bill will also enable the creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships - joint local authority-business bodies brought forward by local authorities to promote local economic development - to replace Regional Development Agencies.

Other measures in the Bill include:

New powers for residents to oppose the closure of local facilities and services and a new right for communities to bid to take over local state-run services.
The abolition of the Standards Board regime.
A new requirement for public bodies to publish online the job titles of every member of staff and the salaries and expenses of senior officials.
A new power for residents to instigate local referendums on local issues and the power to veto excessive council tax increases.
Greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups.
The final abolition of Home Improvement Packs (which are currently suspended)
The creation new trusts to make it simpler for communities to provide homes for local people.
A review of the Housing Revenue Account.

Other bills in the Queen's Speech with implications for local government include:

Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill

The Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill will further regulate the use of CCTV and restrict the use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIPA) Act by councils. It will also amend the Data Protection Act to limit the storage of internet and email records without good reason.

Local Government Bill

The Local Government Bill will block the creation of unitary councils in Exeter and Norwich.

Public Bodies (Reform) Bill

The government has outlined the details of the Public Bodies (Reform) Bill which it says will increase the transparency of decision-making and save £1bn per year by reducing the number of quangos and transferring their powers to local authorities or government departments.

The Bill is intended to provide Ministers with greater powers to abolish, merge or transfer the functions of quangos. It will also introduce new three-yearly reviews of whether quangos are necessary, using the test: ‘ls the function technical; does it need to be politically impartial; and do facts need to be determined transparently?’

According to the government's figures, there are 766 non-departmental public bodies in England and Wales, which employ110,000 staff and spend £46bn per year.

Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill is intended to make the police service more accountable to local people, create a dedicated Border Police Force and develop new measures to tackle alcohol-related violence and disorder.

The main details from the Queen's Speech are unchanged from those in the coalition government's policy document published last week and include:

The creation of new directly-elected roles to hold the police to account and ensure that local policing activities meet the needs of the local community, help build confidence in the system and bring communities and the police together.
Amendments to health and safety laws so that they do not stand in the way of “common sense” policing.
The creation of a dedicated Border Police Force, as part of a refocused Serious Organised Crime Agency, to enhance national security, improve immigration controls, and crack down on the trafficking of people, weapons and drugs.
Increasing the levels of collaboration between police forces to deal with serious crime and deliver better value for money.
An overhaul of the Licensing Act to give local authorities and the police much stronger powers to remove licenses from, or refuse to grant licenses to, any premises that are causing problems. This will also ban the sale of alcohol below cost price and allow councils to charge more for late-night licenses to pay for additional policing.
New powers for councils to shut down shops or bars persistently selling to children and an increase in the maximum fine for selling to children to £20,000.

Public Health Bill

Amongst a variety of measures to reform the National Health Service will be the creation of a new public health service, led by the Department of Health, which is intended to weight health funding towards the most disadvantaged areas through the payment of a health premium and make it a requirement of local NHS organisations to improve the health of their residents, in conjunction with local authorities, voluntary organisations and local business to deliver this. Budgets will held at local level and local NHS organisations will be paid according the outcomes they achieve.

Academies Bill

The Queen's Speech included the long-trailed Bill to make it easier for schools to gain academy status and leave local authority control.

The bill will:

enable the Secretary of State to issue an “academy order” requiring the local authority to cease to maintain the school.
remove the requirement to consult the local authority before opening an academy, thus simplifying and accelerating the process.
require the consent of any existing (mainly church) foundations before a school applies to become an academy.
deem academy trusts to be “exempt charities”.
enable primary and special schools to become academies as well as secondary schools.
ensure there is no change of religious character in the conversion process.
retain the existing legal requirement for funding agreements to last at least seven years (the agreement can still provide for intervention or termination, if the academy fails).
provide schools with the freedoms to deliver an excellent education in the way they see fit, within a broad framework where they are clearly accountable for the outcomes they deliver.
enable all maintained schools to apply to become an Academy with schools judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted being pre-approved.
Prevent the expansion of selective schools, although schools which already select or partially select pupils will be able to continue to do so.

Non-legislative items

Social enterprise and mutuals

The promised expansion of the role of the third sector and co-operatives does need legislation. The project will be co-ordinated by the Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude, who will work with the Minister for Civil Society, Treasury Ministers and government departments to identify where social enterprise, charities and co-operatives can have an enhanced role in public services.

Efforts will include opening up public services markets to allow social enterprise, charities and co-operatives to bid to run public services and an initiative to identify and remove barriers to involvement. Public sector workers will be given a new right to form employee-owned co-operatives and bid to take over the services they deliver. The first measures to implement this policy are expected to be in place by the autumn.

Social care

The government is to establish an independent commission to examine funding for long-term care, with the brief to ensure that there is a fair partnership between the state and the individual. The commission will report within a year.

In the meantime, the government will “take steps” to ensure that all councils offer personal budgets to older and disabled people, to encourage more preventative support to be provided and to enable more join working between health and social services teams to allow more people to remain living at home.

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