Unfortunately, I do reject amendment 107. In 2018, the then Minister for the environment confirmed that national park authorities would be retained and their purpose of conserving and enhancing natural beauty would not be weakened. The decision was to retain the existing powers of national parks. And whilst I consider the general power will be a valuable tool for principal and eligible community councils, I have seen insufficient evidence that the existing powers and purposes of a national park authority are a barrier to practical delivery. 

Whilst I acknowledge there have been some calls for these authorities to have access to a general power, I remain unconvinced what positive difference a general power would realistically make for a single-purpose authority. This does not mean that national park authorities shouldn’t pursue innovative activity that supports the social and economic resilience of communities in their areas with some focus on commercial income. They should, and I do not consider there to be any barrier to them doing so within their existing powers. 

On this amendment, I will also note that the provisions are intended for application to principal and eligible community councils. If it were intended to provide national park authorities with a general power, it could not be achieved by simply inserting them into these provisions as there is a range of legislation that would need to be considered.

I also reject amendments 108 and 109, which would remove the requirement that a community council’s two most recent audit opinions from the Auditor General for Wales must be unqualified before it can resolve itself eligible to use the general power of competence. There have been concerns that it places Audit Wales in a position of measuring the competence of a council, but the Bill does not provide for that nor have I ever said that it does. This is one of three criteria a council must satisfy before resolving itself eligible to use the general power of competence and it provides a measurable, objective indicator that a council carries out governance procedures properly. Preparing a strategy is not an appropriate condition for eligibility in itself as it provides no verifiable indication that the community council is ready to exercise the general power, just that it can prepare a strategy. In addition, a consequence of removing this criteria is that a community council with qualified audits in the past two years could, in theory, exercise the general power. I’m surprised that a Member would be content to propose this step.

The principle that community councils should prepare for exercising the general power does have merit, and this will be set out in statutory guidance to community councils. Having considered the arguments put forward during Stage 2 proceedings and again today, I remain of the view that the criteria for community councils to be eligible for the general power are all appropriate and required. They collectively provide objective, proportionate and measurable conditions of eligibility, covering the democratic, governance and professional aspects of a community council. I therefore call on Members to reject amendments 108 and 109, and also amendment 110, which is consequential to those amendments.

Turning to the amendments I have tabled, amendment 3 is a minor technical amendment that alters the drafting in section 29 so as to ensure consistency with other provisions within the Bill. This does not change the effect of the provision. Amendments 68, 69 and 74 are technical in nature and omit consequential amendments that would have removed principal councils and eligible community councils from section 95 of the Local Government Act 2003. Section 95 of the 2003 Act enables the Welsh Ministers to make an Order authorising them to do for a commercial purpose anything they are able to do for the purposes of carrying on any of their ordinary functions. It is necessary for principal and community councils to be retained within the definition of a relevant authority in section 95 of the 2003 Act, as the Bill only provides for authorities doing something for a commercial purpose where it is being done under the general power of competence. Diolch.