TNAG-2711-FCO40-3917-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-and-Par-1993 — Page 139

BACKGROUND NOTE

+

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;