"I express my thanks to noble Lords for their contributions to the debate and for the number of points that have been made today. I will respond to as many of them as possible but I will have to respond to at least a couple of them in writing following …..." Baroness Swinburne - View Speech
"I am going to write to the noble Baroness with the exact number and calculation that will be used in the East Midlands situation. Ah—somebody knows the answer. It works out as two-thirds or more, so it would go up not down. There we go.
"The Secretary of State has requested a report on the progress with the action plan in six months, including encouragement to work with the Local Government Association and the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny. We have been encouraged by the mayor’s response that he will quickly implement all the recommendations. …..." Baroness Swinburne - View Speech
"All local authorities must comply with the best value duty to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which their functions are exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Best value notices provide for early engagement with an authority that may be exhibiting …..." Baroness Swinburne - View Speech
"There is a strengthened governance code for all the combined mayoral authorities and all these types of devolved government. I am sure that, as we progress with this, we will see those governance systems start to work more efficiently and effectively...." Baroness Swinburne - View Speech
"To assist the House, let me say that best value notices are similar to the Department for Education improvement notices, which are issued following an Ofsted inspection and are a step before statutory intervention. A best value notice is issued to a local authority exhibiting indications of future best value …..." Baroness Swinburne - View Speech
"As the noble Baroness and others in this House will know, whether people are doing what they say they are doing and whether we are achieving best value for money is under constant and ongoing review. The role of the National Audit Office is not to audit or examine individual …..." Baroness Swinburne - View Speech
"Given, as I have outlined, that there are already initiatives under way to implement all 28 recommendations, I do not feel that a non-statutory best value duty notice would achieve anything other than duplicate what is already under way...." Baroness Swinburne - View Speech
"I am sure he is therefore voting for the person who is delivering for him and his local community, regardless of political affiliation...." Baroness Swinburne - View Speech
"I will bring forward the question that I was about to answer in response to both the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, and the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, who asked how I define “affordable”. The Government do not prescribe a definition of affordability. We recognise that the fundamental purpose of social …..." Baroness Swinburne - View Speech