Sheffield Libraries Enquiry?

Ed Vaizey is threatening a public inquiry into library services in Sheffield, which is a more remarkable development than one might imagine.  Although he criticised Andy Burnham when he was in opposition, Vaizey has been reluctant to pressure other local authorities, including Brent.  His current letter appears to be related to pre action correspondence he has received from campaigners.

A cynic might suggest that Mr Vaizey is trying to make life harder for a Labour Council struggling to deal with central government cuts.  If so, the Council could, of course, pursue a judicial review against the Secretary of State for ordering an enquiry without adequate reason.  The reluctance of a series of SoSs over many years to order enquiries suggests to me that they are advised that the bar for an enquiry is set very high.

According to Public Libraries News, the changes to Sheffield libraries will be delayed whilst the issues are examined.  This will in itself, cause problems for Sheffield.  They will have set a budget assuming savings during the course of the year from closing the libraries.  They will also have staff members who have been given redundancies or already started looking for other jobs, who now find that the libraries are to be kept going until the process is over.  That creates uncertainty for staff and probably has financial implications. 

The text of the letter is here.  I think it is interesting for the questions it does not ask.  The Sheffield plans involve passing a number of buildings over to volunteers, but there is no query about how this would work or how effective in might be in running a "comprehensive and effective" service.  I have suggested before that, as these kinds of libraries are increasingly widely used, there should be some kind of consensus on measuring their performance.  Nor is there any query over fiduciary duty of the kind I have suggested rules out a handover in the case of the former Preston Library.  It also does not mention IT provision despite the effective change in the definition introduced by the Bailey case, and expanded in the Lincolnshire judgement.  He also does not address any questions explicitly to the Equality Act protected characteristics although these are generally the mainstay of previous legal challenges.