Local Government in Scotland Act 2003
Local Government in Scotland Act 2003
asp 1
[11th February 2003]
and received Royal Assent on[8th January 2003]
The Bill for this Act of the Scottish Parliament was passed by the Parliament onAn Act of the Scottish Parliament to provide anew about the way in which local authorities discharge their functions and about the local provision of certain public services; to give local authorities power to do things which they consider will advance well-being; to provide exemptions and reliefs from non-domestic rates in relation to certain lands and heritages; to confer power on the Scottish Ministers to combine certain lands and heritages for the purposes of assessing rateable value; to require local authorities to prepare, and endeavour to implement, a plan relating to the carrying out of their waste disposal and collection functions; to make new provision about the capital expenditure of those authorities and about the making of capital grants to them; to make some miscellaneous provisions connected with the functions of local authorities; and for connected purposes.
Part 1
Best value and accountability
Duty to secure best value
1 Local authorities' duty to secure best value
(1) It is the duty of a local authority to make arrangements which secure best value.
(2) Best value is continuous improvement in the performance of the authority's functions.
(3) In securing best value, the local authority shall maintain an appropriate balance among—
(a) the quality of its performance of its functions;
(b) the cost to the authority of that performance; and
(c) the cost to persons of any service provided by it for them on a wholly or partly rechargeable basis.
(4) In maintaining that balance, the local authority shall have regard to—
(a) efficiency;
(b) effectiveness;
(c) economy; and
(d) the need to meet the equal opportunity requirements.
(5) The local authority shall discharge its duties under this section in a way which contributes to the achievement of sustainable development.
(6) In measuring the improvement of the performance of a local authority's functions for the purposes of this section, regard shall be had to the extent to which the outcomes of that performance have improved.
(7) In this section, ‘equal opportunity requirements’ has the same meaning as in Section L2 of Part II of Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998 (c.46).
2 Considerations bearing on performance of duty under section 1
(1) In the performance of its duties under section 1 above, a local authority shall have regard—
(a) to any guidance provided by the Scottish Ministers for local authorities on the performance of those duties; and such guidance may include guidance on—
(i) how to make and what is to be included in the arrangements referred to in subsection (1) of that section;
(ii) how to implement the duty imposed by that subsection; and
(b) to what are, whether by reference to any generally recognised, published code or otherwise, regarded as proper arrangements for the purposes of section 1(1) above (or purposes which include those purposes).
(2) Before providing guidance under this section, the Scottish Ministers shall consult such associations of local authorities and such other persons as they think appropriate.
(3) In the event of a conflict in any respect between the considerations to which a local authority is to have regard under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) above and those to which it has to have regard under paragraph (b) of that subsection, it shall in that respect have regard only to those within paragraph (a).
Enforcement
3 Action by Accounts Commission following report by Controller of Audit
3 Action by Accounts Commission following report by Controller of Audit
(1) On a report being made to it by the Controller of Audit under section 102(1) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65) (the ‘1973 Act’), the Accounts Commission for Scotland may do, in any order, all or any of the following, or none of them—
(a) direct the Controller of Audit to carry out further investigations;
(b) hold a hearing;
(c) state its findings.
(2) Findings which do not follow a hearing shall, for the purposes of section 103D of the 1973 Act, as applied by section 4 below, be treated as the findings of the members of the Commission holding a hearing.
4 Hearings under section 3 above
(1) Sections 103C (procedure, evidence etc. at hearings held by Commission) and 103D (findings of hearings) of the 1973 Act apply to hearings held under section 3(1)(b) above as they apply to hearings held under section 103B(1)(b) of that Act.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) above—
(a) sections 103C(2) and (5) and 103D(a) of the 1973 Act shall be ignored; and
(b) the other provisions of section 103D shall be taken to extend to findings which do not follow a hearing.
(3) Findings made under section 103D as applied by this section may include recommendations and the persons to whom those recommendations may be made include the Scottish Ministers.
(4) The Accounts Commission shall give a copy of findings so made to any member or officer of a local authority who was named in the report upon which proceeded the hearing to which the findings relate.
(5) At a hearing held under section 3 above, the Accounts Commission shall afford—
(a) any local authority likely to be affected by any findings made; and
(b) any person likely to be so affected (or the representative of such a person),
the opportunity of appearing and being heard.
(6) Subsections (1), (6) and (7) of section 103 of the 1973 Act (which are superseded by provisions of section 3 above and this section) are repealed.
5 Action by local authorities on receipt of findings
(1) A local authority receiving a copy of findings under section 103D of the 1973 Act as applied by section 4 above shall consider those findings in accordance with section 103E(1) and (2) of that Act and subsections (3) to (7) of the said section 103E shall apply accordingly.
(2) Sections 5 and 6 of the Local Government Act 1992 (c.19) are repealed.
Other provisions about best value
6 Accounts Commission's studies and recommendations to include aspects of securing best value
6 Accounts Commission's studies and recommendations to include aspects of securing best value
(1) In subsection (1) of section 97A (Commission's studies for improving economy etc.) of the 1973 Act—
(a) after ‘for’, where first occurring, there is inserted—
‘(a) the securing by local authorities of best value;
(b)’; and
(b) for ‘for’, where second occurring, there is inserted—
‘(c)’.
(2) After that subsection there is inserted—
(1A) In subsection (1)(a) above, the references to best value and the securing of it are references to best value within the meaning of section 1 of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 (asp 1) and the securing of it in accordance with that section.’.
Relaxation of rules about contracts and supply of goods and services
S-7 Local authority contracts: relaxation of exclusion of non-commercial considerations 7 Local authority contracts: relaxation of exclusion of non-commercial considerations
7 Local authority contracts: relaxation of exclusion of non-commercial considerations
(1) The following provisions of section 17(5) of the Local Government Act 1988 (c.9) (the ‘1988 Act’) do not operate in relation to a local authority in any of the cases specified in subsection (2) below—
paragraph (a) (which provides that the terms and conditions of employment of, and certain other arrangements affecting, contractors' workers are to be disregarded by authorities when exercising certain functions relating to public supply or works contracts);
paragraph (b) (which provides that the question whether contractors sub-contract to self-employed individuals on a services-only basis is to be likewise disregarded); and
paragraph (d) so far as relating to the conduct of contractors or their workers in industrial disputes between them (which paragraph provides that such conduct is to be likewise disregarded).
(2) Those cases are—
(a) where the local authority reasonably seeks to ensure that a contractor with the authority will comply with the contractor's obligations under the contract;
(b) where the local authority reasonably seeks to ensure that a contractor with the authority will perform the contractor's obligations under the contract in a way which will not prevent the authority from securing best value or hinder it in doing so; and
(c) where the local authority has reasonable grounds for believing that the trade contractor's implementation of the contract with the authority would entail a relevant transfer within the meaning of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (S.I. 1981/1794) or any regulations replacing those regulations, as from time to time amended.
(3) Section 17(5)(h) of the 1988 Act (which provides that the use or non-use by contractors of services provided under the Building (Scotland) Act 1959 (c.24) is to be disregarded by authorities when exercising certain functions relating to public...
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