The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee's latest report on the Public Bodies Bill has welcomed the government's amendments to the bill. But it warns that they "do not meet the concerns that the Committee has already reported about the exceptionally wide delegated powers which remain in clauses 1 to 5 and 13 of the Bill."

These clauses give ministers wide powers to decide the future of public bodies.

Clause 1: power to abolish

Clause 2: power to merge

Clause 3: power to modify constitutional arrangements

Clause 4: power to modify funding arrangements

Clause 5: power to modify or transfer functions

Clause 13 covers powers relating to environmental bodies.

In the latest discussion on the bill in the Lords, Baroness Thomas of Winchester, chair of the delegated powers committee said "...the inescapable fact [is] that the powers in Clauses 1 to 5 and 13 are inappropriate delegations of powers."