Contracting Out (Functions relating to the Royal Parks) Order 2016 — House of Lords, 2016-10-24
Topic: Public Lands
Robert Stevenson (Labour, Centre-left): I thank all noble Lords for their contributions. I think that we have all had our eyes opened and learned things that perhaps we might not have done had we not put forward the amendment. I will have to go and look up the Addison rules—I am sure that I need a tutorial on that as well. They clearly curtailed much of what we could have heard from the noble Lord, Lord True. I am sorry about that, but if that is the rule, it is the rule If government has a function in doing something, it surely should not just will the ends and not provide the means. It should think more carefully about how such things can be run. I gather from the Minister that the reason for what is proposed is essentially that the present arrangement under which executive agencies operate cannot provide the sort of funding, support and operational freedoms that are judged to be in the best interest of the Royal Parks. That seems to be a sad reflection on government’s ability to do the sort of things it wants. It is not that I am against this; I just think that it is important that we understand some of the motivations around it. I take it that that is really what is happening, because there are opportunities to work differently, to fund differently and to retain funding in a way that is simply not possible under the government system. One could perhaps take from this debate that there is a bit of a problem if government as a whole cannot do this. What could be more interesting than to discover that my rather winged shot on tax should have revealed a Budget secret so early in the season, if indeed the Budget is going to contain measures for the way in which executive bodies are dealt with in the tax system under a new set of constitutional arrangements? I suspect that local authorities and others might be interested in how that has happened and that the smile on the face of the noble Lord, Lord True, is redolent of the fact that he is going to go off and check what is going to happen—I jest slightly. If that is what is required to achieve something which the Government think is necessary, again my point is made On the points that I raised and were picked up by other noble Lords, I do not think that the consultation reached the standards that we want. That the Minister was able to say that 80% of people supported Winter Wonderland and to cite other high percentages shows that some consultation is taking place on specific issues. It is a bit odd that it was not done here. Simply putting up notices for casual visitors walking their dogs is not quite what I had in mind. I am glad that the staff were consulted—indeed, I had a helpful meeting with senior staff from the agency, who persuaded me that I was wrong to assert that that was not the case, so I accept what the Minister said about that The issue of the Charity Commission as regulator to which the Minister referred is of course a problem for all bodies that are in receipt of public funds; it is not specific just to the Royal Parks. The public good that is done with the funds that come from government often has to be supplemented by funds raised in a commercial operation—when I was at the British Film Institute, it was an issue that we had to balance all the time. We received about £15 million in public funding then—it is about the same now—but we raised nearly £10 million through ticket sales and by selling books, magazines and videos. We always had to be careful that the commercial imperative did not drive the onus in the statutes of the body. In this case, it would be the new charity. It is not unreasonable for Parliament to be assured that this will be a transition within which such verities are retained I hope that I did not give the impression that I was against what is being done. What I want is brilliant public parks, fantastic public spaces and for London to be enhanced and supported by them. I do not object to the commercial activities around that—although they are not all commercial; they are fun, enjoyable and have added a new dimension. It would be wrong for that to get out of proportion. One way in which that could be prevented would be for the Minister to go through some of the points that have been made today and write to us, and perhaps put a note in the Library about some of the issues that he was not able to cover. I think that we would then feel reasonably satisfied that we had given this matter good scrutiny and that the arrangements in place were not so awful as to be resisted at this stage I am supported by thousands of people on my Back Benches here who want me to press for a vote on the order and to take it down, but on this occasion I have been persuaded by the arguments. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.