BACKGROUND NOTE
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L
LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL
"Legislation will be introduced
to establish a review of local
government structure in England, and to enhance competitive tendering
for local authority services."
The Local Government Bill would provide for the publication of performance
standards by local authorities and an extension to their competitive tendering
requirements. The proposals were included in the White Paper "The Citizen's
Charter" (Cm 1599), published on 22 July 1991 and announced by Mr John Major,
the Prime Minister (Hansard, 22 July Cols 765-769). A consultation paper on
competitive tendering is to be issued shortly.
A
The Bill would also make provision for setting up a Local Government
Commission to review the structure of local government in England.
construction paper "The Structure of Local Government in England" was published
by the Department of the Environment on 23 April and announced by Mr Michael
Heseltine, Secretary of State for the Environment (Hansard, 23 April, Cols 901-
903).
The main provisions of the Bill would:
require local authorities to publish information which shows what
standard of service they are providing and at what cost. The Audit
Commission (in Scotland, the Scottish Accounts Commission) would
be empowered to determine a basis for this information and to make
comparisons of performance;