Improving Scrutiny

The Local Government Chronicle has an article about the future of scrutiny here. It quotes John Denham arguing that Councils show scrutinise all bodies spending public money in their area, not just the NHS. If that came into force, it would be a major advance in making the Council more effective in partnerships. It also makes the suggestion that Councils should have specialist scrutiny departments. That might be attractive, but I think it would take a real committment to the importance of Scrutiny that at present simply isn't there.