Member

I ask the Minister: what specific steps have been taken to ensure that future explanatory memoranda actually explain in full the Government’s legal U-turns? Will the Government commit to a statutory protocol for consulting parish and town councils when their election cycles are disrupted by principal authority changes? We on these Benches affirm the importance of these elections proceeding, but we must ensure that the indecision and lack of transparency cited in this regret Motion never becomes a standard operating procedure for the department. The Minister’s responses to some of the issues raised will give us either confidence or no confidence that the department has got a grip and will not allow this ever to happen again.