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Best Returns
Best Value Guidance
for
Library Authorities in England
7
Government powers of intervention
Government has powers
to intervene in local authority service provision under best value. These
are additional to existing intervention powers incorporated in the Public Libraries
and Museums Act 1964.
Government anticipates
using these additional powers only as a last resort where there is evidence
that it needs to act to protect the interests of local people and service users.
Intervention will follow a protocol agreed with the Local Government Association,
and authorities will normally be given opportunities to make necessary improvements
themselves. The powers are flexible and wide-ranging to reflect the different
types and seriousness of failure and ways of achieving improvements. They
include - in extreme cases - removing responsibility for a function from an
authority altogether.
Both external auditors
and best value inspectors have powers to refer authorities to government for
intervention. In the case of library services, referrals will be made to the
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (CMS). Corporate or cross-cutting
failures will be referred to the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government
and the Regions (TLR).
7.1
Referrals from auditors
Auditors may refer an
authority to the Secretary of State (TLR) where they are not convinced that
the authority as a whole has made a serious attempt to address issues in a
way that will ensure best value for local people.
7.2
Referrals from inspectors
There are three broad
sets of circumstances that may lead to referral to the appropriate Secretary
of State as a result of best value inspection:
- “serious service failures
in an authority that could result in danger or harm to the public;
- persistent failure by
an authority to address recommendations made by inspectors; and
- failures in a number
of services in an authority that reveal serious weaknesses in an authority’s
corporate capacity to manage services and make improvements”19.
In practice it seems unlikely
that a single library service inspection would trigger referral to the
Secretary of State (CMS). In the first instance, such serious failures are
unlikely in library services unless buildings, mobile libraries or other facilities
are in a serious state of decay - in which case the Health and Safety Executive
would probably already be involved.
The second instance could
be triggered by a follow-up inspection of a library service that found neither
the capacity nor the will to make the improvements needed. The authority would
normally be given repeated opportunities to implement the recommendations of
the original and follow-up inspections before being referred to the Secretary
of State (CMS).
The third instance could
be triggered by an inspection of a library service that contributed to evidence
of fundamental problems at a corporate level causing failure in one or more
services. In these cases it is likely that the Audit Commission would initiate
an inspection of the authority’s corporate governance arrangements before referring
to the Secretary of State (TLR).
The most likely route
for intervention in library services remains through the powers of the 1964
Act, where the Secretary of State (CMS) - on the advice of the Chief Library
Adviser - finds that an authority is failing to carry out its duty to provide
a “comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons desiring to
make use thereof”20.
But there is still no
clear guidance on how the two separate sets of government intervention powers
may actually be used in the case of failure by a library authority.
DCMS and the Audit Commission are expected to agree a protocol on intervention
during 2001.
19
Audit Commission, Seeing is Believing: how the Audit Commission will carry
out Best Value Inspections in England, 2000
20
HMSO, Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964, Eliz II Ch 75
8.
Next steps and future developments 
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