The Act – Section by Section Part 1  - Best Value and Accountability
8.Part 1 provides a new performance management and accountability regime for local authorities. For the purposes of Part 1 “local authority” is defined by section 61 so as to include all Scottish councils and the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority. By virtue of section 14, Part 1 also applies to committees, joint committees and joint boards where the members are appointed by local authorities and to charities for which the trustees are local authorities or their members. It puts local authorities under a duty of Best Value and requires them to have regard to guidance about what that may mean. It extends the powers of the Accounts Commission to encourage failures in Best Value to be identified and addressed. It provides more freedoms and flexibilities for local authorities over commercial and trading activity and removes the requirement to submit specified activities to Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT). It provides a new framework for performance reporting to local authority stakeholders, which leaves decisions about the ways and means of publication to be decided at local level.