Volume 15: Government and Public Administration
9. Local government
Constitutional position

9.2 The existence of local authorities, their functions, funding and many aspects of how they operated were governed by statute. They might do only those things that legislation required or permitted, a situation which contrasted with that of central Government Departments, which were not created or controlled by statute. ¹ Thus, central government determined through legislation broadly what local government must or might do. Local authorities could promote Private Bills in Parliament:

. . . for the better fulfilment of their functions by the conferring of powers which the ordinary law does not give them. ²

However, such Bills could not impinge upon public Acts of Parliament or public policy, nor could they proceed if 'the magnitude of the area and the multiplicity of the interests involved' were considered inappropriate to a Private Bill. ³ Also:

The range of activities requiring private bills gradually narrowed during the course of the present century as an increasing number of functions came to be governed by public and general acts. ⁴

9.3 Within the lines laid down by statute, local authorities themselves decided how to undertake their functions, although central government might exert considerable influence through national policies and in particular through grant and funding programmes.

9.4 Like those of central Departments, the decisions of local authorities were potentially subject to judicial review, and their decision-making processes could similarly be subject to review by an Ombudsman. ⁵