Member

Amendment 172 would prevent a pilot scheme being extended more than once. I reassure the noble Baroness that the Government have no intention of seeing pilot schemes go on for an indefinite amount of time. The purpose of a pilot scheme is to test whether a specific function works for a strategic authority before taking a decision on whether to update the devolution framework. However, the Government do not want to force the closure of a pilot scheme arbitrarily if more time is needed to determine whether a pilot scheme has been successful before a decision is taken on adding the function to the devolution framework. Flexibility is therefore required.