Summary
Surcharge etc.
211.Part V of the Act makes a number of ancillary provisions relating to the audit framework for relevant authorities (as set out in the Audit Commission Act 1998). These include the repeal of the current surcharge provisions. They also remove the Secretary of State’s power to sanction items of account; this enables the Secretary of State to protect individuals from surcharge. Part V also includes arrangements to introduce a new system of advisory notices to enable auditors to seek a court decision about the legality of what an authority proposed to do. This replaces existing arrangements enabling auditors to issue prohibition orders.
Welfare services
212.Part V of the Act includes provision for a new framework within which local authorities will work jointly with other agencies and partners to plan and commission welfare services for vulnerable people. It creates a new central government grant to replace the current fragmented funding arrangements for welfare services with one single budget from April 2003.
213.Funding which will be transferred to the new grant includes:
Housing Benefit paid in respect of support services;
Housing Corporation Supported Housing Management Grant;
Home Office Probation Accommodation Grants;
grants made by DETR to Home Improvement Agencies;
relevant elements of DSS Resettlement Programme Revenue and of local authority Total Standard Spending.
Other provisions
214.Part V introduces a specific power that will enable relevant authorities to pay compensation to individuals where they are satisfied that maladministration has, or may have, occurred. There is also provision to enable both the Secretary of State and the National Assembly for Wales (NAW) to make orders to confer a power on relevant authorities to offer insurance against indemnity to their members and officers.
215.This Part of the Act provides for changes to Part VA of the Local Government Act 1972 relating to access to information. It also provides for changes necessary to the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 resulting from measures in Part II of this Act and provisions on allowances and pensions for local authority members.
216.Part V also allows local authorities to charge parents in receipt of Working Families’ Tax Credit and Disabled Person’s Tax Credit for the childcare provided by these authorities. This would not apply to parents whose children are defined as “in need” by section 17(10) of the Children Act 1989 or people on benefits who currently receive free local authority childcare; these parents will continue to receive local authority childcare free of charge.
217.Finally, Part V also amends section 2A of the Local Government Act 1986, which prohibits local authorities from promoting homosexuality.
