Procurement Bill [HL]

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 26th October 2022 Grand Committee

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

I advise the Grand Committee that, if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, which is likely, the Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.

Clause 50: Key performance indicators

Amendment 268

Moved by

Older Persons Commissioner for England

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Wednesday 19th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

The noble Baroness has put forward reasons for having somebody to represent older people and I hear that. I am sure that by the time officials in my department have read Hansard they will have got the message, so please join the meeting. On the second part of the noble Baroness’s question, I am not able to commit to or confirm her request.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

Would my noble friend agree that, if such a commissioner were appointed, he or she would have plenty of work in your Lordships’ House?

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

I could not possibly comment.

Procurement Bill [HL]

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 4th July 2022 Grand Committee

[Lord True (Con)]

I will have to take procedural advice on that. My understanding is that if I withdraw Amendment 1 it is not the case that the group has been negatived and therefore that the other amendments do not lie on the Order Paper. The Government would obviously have preferred, despite all the justified criticisms—

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

I hate to interrupt the noble Lord in full flow, but a Division has been called in the Chamber.

Covid-19 and the Use and Scrutiny of Emergency Powers (Constitution Committee Report)

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 21st June 2022 Grand Committee

Motion agreed.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

My Lords, before the next Motion for debate is called, I advise the Committee that the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, is unable to take part due to technical communication problems.

Census (Return Particulars and Removal of Penalties) Bill [HL]

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Committee: 1st sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Tuesday 4th June 2019 Grand Committee

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

My Lords, as my script says—although I shall go off script in a minute—if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, which I venture to say is extremely unlikely, the Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.

Clause 1: Amendment of the Census Act 1920

Amendment 1

Moved by

Neighbourhood Planning Bill

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Committee: 4th sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 8th February 2017 Grand Committee

67: Clause 14, page 13, line 18, leave out from “may” to end of line 20 and insert “, for purposes connected with the purposes for which it could acquire land compulsorily, take temporary possession of land—
(a) by agreement, or(b) compulsorily, if authorised to do so in accordance with section 15 .”

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

I must advise the Grand Committee that if Amendment 67 is agreed to, I will not be able to call Amendment 68 due to pre-emption.

Amendments 66 and 67 agreed.

--- Later in debate ---

Amendments 98 to 100 agreed.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

I must advise the Grand Committee that if Amendment 101 is agreed to, I cannot call Amendment 102 due to pre-emption.

Amendment 101

Moved by

Deregulation Bill

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Wednesday 11th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

Unless other noble Lords suggest anything else, what I propose may be the most practical way forward. If my noble friend is minded to withdraw her amendment, we can move on to the substantive debate. Because of the confusion, I suggest that that is what she does. If she wishes to speak to Amendment 48, that is her choice, although I think that many of her points have been covered. However, this is a self-governing House and it is for the House to agree to that. I ask her to withdraw Amendment 47 to allow us to move on to the substantive debate, but of course I succumb to the will of the House on that.

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

The noble Baroness has to indicate that she wishes to withdraw her amendment.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

I thought that the Deputy Speaker had to put that to me before I sought leave to withdraw the amendment. I apologise. I am happy to beg leave to withdraw Amendment 47 on the grounds that it has been very well debated. It was intended to be a separate issue and I shall wish to speak to Amendment 48.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

I shall speak very briefly to this. Amendment 48 sets out the terms that local authorities believe are essential to be able to control things. Although it says “7 days” they are quite willing to introduce a 48-hour or even a 24-hour system to do that. That is all I need to say. It is a matter of the Government negotiating but we should have an option. Amendment 50 would enable local authorities to recover costs because enforcement procedure of any sort is terribly expensive and, of course, falls back in the end on council tax payers, or people do not get the service at all because it cannot be afforded. As for Amendment 51, I feel very strongly that Clause 33 in its present form is not good and I would be very much in favour of leaving it out.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Would the noble Baroness like to move her amendment?

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

Before I move my amendment I would like to thank others who have covered so many points that I therefore do not need to. I beg to move.

Electoral Registration: National Voter Registration Day

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, the noble Lord will know of Operation Black Vote, which has targeted people in that area. The statistics suggest that members of ethnic minorities are not as underregistered as some other target groups. However, young people of all groups are a problem and we all need to do as much as we can, locally and nationally, to cope with that.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

Is my noble friend aware of the valuable work done by the Lord Speaker’s outreach programme in this context? I declare an interest as a member of that programme.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I am well aware of that, and when I step down from this post I think that I might volunteer. I am not quite sure how people in our age group enthuse 16 year-olds to take part in the political process, but that is something that we will all have to deal with.

Local Audit and Accountability Bill [HL]

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Monday 15th July 2013 Lords Chamber

Clause 7 : Appointment of local auditor

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Geddes)]

My Lords, before calling Amendment 6, I should point out that there is a mistake on the Marshalled List. It should read: “Page 5, line 28”.

Amendment 6 not moved.

Local Audit and Accountability Bill [HL]

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Wednesday 26th June 2013 Grand Committee

Debate on whether Clause 39 should stand part of the Bill.

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Geddes)]

It may assist the Grand Committee if I advise that this is not an amendment as such but an opportunity for one or more noble Lords to voice their opposition to the Question that the clause stand part of the Bill.

[The Earl of Lytton]

My Lords, my entire purpose in objecting to the clause came not only at the request of the LGA but as a result of a question that I put to it about the interface between the council tax referendum regime on the one hand and local democracy on the other. It felt, as do I, that the Government’s position needed further explanation. The National Association of Local Councils has also raised doubts about the wisdom of this part of the Bill, so here I am opening up the point for debate.

The Committee will know better than I about the frequency of local elections, depending on the type of authority and whether all the seats are up for election—a third, a half, or whatever, depending on the type of authority. The authorities that seem to have the least frequent elections seem to be the shire counties and the London boroughs, according to a potted account with which I have been provided by the LGA. The unitary and district authorities obviously have a different range of election frequencies and proportions of those standing for election, so the only slightly tongue-in-cheek question is this: how many council tax referenda equate to an election? As I say, that is slightly tongue in cheek.

I accept that a council tax referendum may be advanced on a narrower basis than a local election but it seems to be obvious that if a council is elected and starts to implement its programme, but is then subject to a further check on progress via a referendum on the logical outcomes of its policies, it begins to look like a recipe for potential gridlock. Giving the electorate the right to chop and change midway through an electoral cycle is curious. I suggest that the open-ended nature of that needs to be looked at. I do not necessarily say that the principle of intervening in council tax referenda is wrong or anything like that, but they do not necessarily coincide with the normal electoral cycle, and there is therefore the possibility of such referenda being quite disruptive.

As I said earlier, in order to galvanise the local electorate, which is sorely needed in some cases, it is necessary to have matters of substance and of relevance to the electors on which their votes can make a difference. That is a very important point. The LGA certainly feels—I noted the comments of the noble Baroness in another context—that the referendum provision risks compromising the thrust of local democracy in certain circumstances and that the main decision should be via the normal electoral ballot box. That is certainly the view of the LGA. As I say, we cannot guarantee that a referendum and a local election will coincide. A further explanation is needed from the Government.

In terms of forward investments, I noted what the noble Baroness said a few minutes ago about the way in which the previous amendments might be brought to bear on this whole matter. I did not quite understand the thread that a longer-term investment process would necessarily be proof against the effects of a referendum. That was my intention at this stage. I noted that no other noble Lord had added their name to the amendment and therefore anticipated that I might be in a minority of one standing before the Committee. On the broader principle, however, I should be interested to hear the Minister’s comments and those of other noble Lords.