[ARCHIVED CONTENT] Defra, UK - Consultations - Consultation on changes to the Local Government Act 1972 to allow local authorities in England to work together on animal health

Consultation on changes to the Local Government Act 1972 to allow local authorities in England to work together on animal health

Background

Local authorities (LAs) cannot currently delegate work on animal health activities to other LAs, which is a clear obstacle to efficient and effective delivery. This problem is a result of legislation which prevents the delegation of animal health activities from one local authority to another. This differs from other work areas, where LAs are permitted to arrange for another LA to carry out work on their behalf.

We propose to bring the law on animal health activities into line with the rest of policy areas across government. This will allow those LAs who wish to invite other LAs to carry out animal health activities on their behalf to do so. We expect this to reduce the overall cost of providing such activities through economies of scale. It may increase effectiveness as LAs with less animal health work could benefit from others' greater expertise and experience.

We recently consulted on the Eves review of the animal health and welfare delivery landscape. One of Eves’ recommendations was to remove legal barriers to cross LA boundary work on animal health. Respondents on this point unanimously supported this recommendation. This change will allow LAs to make a choice on how they deliver animal health services to meet the needs of the local community. We therefore propose to remove the legal obstacle.

Consultation

We intend that the proposed changes to legislation are made through a Legislative Reform Order (LRO) under the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006. This is a type of legislation which allows amendment of Acts of Parliament to remove burdens, without needing to use a Bill, and can only be used for non-controversial issues. Compared to a Bill, using an LRO is quicker and less onerous on Parliament. This consultation is being made in accordance with the requirements of the Legislative Regulatory Reform Act 2006 and the terms of the Government’s Code of Practice on Written Consultations. These require that we consult widely on all LRO proposals.

The response form for this consultation is split into two sections. Consultees who do not represent local authorities should only answer ‘Section A: is an LRO appropriate in this case?’. This examines whether an LRO is the best way to achieve the objective of removing the legal barrier to local authorities working together across boundaries on animal health.

Local authority respondents should also answer ‘Section B: Questions for Local Authorities’. This section asks specific questions of local authorities to help us finalise our impact assessment.

The closing date of this consultation is 17 October 2008.

The consultation package includes: