Little known facts that could hide a danger for Local Authority democracy.

This was sent to me by Local Labour Councillor in Bristol Jenny Smith, little known facts that could make a big difference. The Secretary of State could decide who runs the local authority services embedded in the Localism Bill, which I thought gave decision making powers to local people. Have we been Condemned again.

Watch out for the small print The Public Bodies Bill – bonfire of the quangos – is replete with Henry VIII powers I am skipping the section on the History of the various Royal Dynasties but it at last comes to the king’s little domestic difficulty, producing a legitimate make heir, which was the trigger for the English Reformation. His reign saw the legal union of England and Wales; dissolution of the monasteries; creation of the Royal Navy and according to some historians a ‘revolution’ in government driven through by his energetic first minister Thomas Cromwell. These changes still have resonance today. It is however a piece of small print, a time bomb lobbed from the 1530’s into the second decade of the 21st century, which has the potential to wreak massive changes in the way England is locally governed. I am referring to “The Proclamation by the Crown Act 1539”. To understand its significance requires a knowledge of Statutory Instruments (SI),. These are the principle form in which delegated or secondary legislation is made in Great Britain – designed to implement the primary legislation as debated and passed by parliament. However some statutory instruments are made under provisions of acts which allow the instrument to change the parent Act itself, or to change other primary legislation. These provisions, allowing primary legislation to be amended by secondary legislation are known as “Henry VIII clauses”. Parliament has very little scrutiny over this type of secondary legislation. The disquiet about the power given by the ‘Reformation Parliament’ was evident when the 1539 Act was repealed following Henry’s death in 1547. However, similar powers to bypass parliament have resurfaced in modern legislation. A 1932 Report (the Donoughmore Committee) found that between 1888 and 1929 nine acts of Parliament contained such clauses. It recognised that their occasional use might be justified but concluded that their ‘use must be demonstrably essential, and justified on each occasion by the Minister “to the hilt”. There were none until the war, but they then returned in growing numbers. The use of Henry VII clauses now seems to have become habitual. According to the Minister of Justice more than 120 of them had been passed in the last parliamentary session alone. The coalition has continued the trend. The public bodies Bill (bonfire of the quangos) is replete with “Henry VIII” powers. Eric Pickles and his successors at the CLG are set to benefit from a massive extension of centralised power from the numerous Henry VIII clauses proposed in the misnames “localism Bill”. There are eleven such clauses alone in the Community Right to Challenge’ which will give the Secretary of State sway over how and who provides local authority services. This breath taking acquisition of power on a scale unknown to previous ministers responsible for local government requires a modern Holbein to capture the essence of the new monarchy at CLG and the shrunken status and role of the local government. Perhaps something dead and formaldehyde by Damien Hurst would fit the bill. John O’Farrell. DO ALL TRY TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS. I NOW HOLD A LIST OF THE ACTS IN THE Bonfire of legislation and quangos from the web site. I am going through them hopefully today and will place the whole lot in the Labour members room. I think the deadline is the 27th so we must ensure that our officers are moving in the correct direction.

Thanks to Jenny.

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