Member

Lastly, throughout our discussions on the levelling-up Bill, an area of concern that was shared across the House—well, perhaps not entirely, but by me and the Minister in her previous role—was about the non-constituent members of a mayoral authority and how they would be selected or elected and what powers they would be able to operate. That is in paragraph 5.9 of the Explanatory Memorandum, in relation to the East Midlands Combined County Authority. Can the Minister throw a bit of light on that? How will this operate? In the levelling-up Bill those non-constituent authorities were going to be representative district councils, and we argued strongly for that, but if district councils are abolished in combined county authorities, as the Government are proposing, what then? I know this is perhaps impinging a bit on the English devolution Bill but, considering it is here, it would be helpful if the Minister could explain how it will operate.