MPs urge clarity on “dog’s breakfast” of responsibilities of London Assembly

October 16, 2013

The London Assembly has been “left behind” as the Mayor’s powers and responsibilities have grown, MPs have warned.

In a report, Post-legislative scrutiny of the Greater London Authority Act 2007 and the London Assembly, the Communities and Local Government committee called for the Assembly’s powers to be made consistent and for it to have a clearer scrutiny function.

The report recommended that the Assembly should have the power to:

call in mayoral decisions, “thereby bringing its powers into line with local councils with directly elected mayors”;
amend the Mayor’s capital budgets as it can his revenue budgets, given the Mayor’s increased funds for investment in housing, transport and economic development;
reject the Mayor’s Police and Crime Plan on the same basis as it can all his other statutory strategies; and
review and, if necessary, reject the Mayor's appointment of any Deputy Mayor as it can his appointment of a Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime.

The report said: “The Assembly must have a clearer and more recognizable scrutiny function for Londoners. It is neither part of the Mayor’s executive nor an embryonic legislature.”

It followed, the CLG committee argued, that Assembly members who join the Mayor’s cabinet or sit on GLA boards should be required to give up their Assembly membership.

“We question how the public are supposed to disentangle a situation where an Assembly member can carry out scrutiny work in one area and perform an executive role in another as a Deputy Mayor or a mayoral representative on a GLA board,” the MPs added.

The report also called for the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority to be reconstituted along the lines of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, with a deputy Mayor for Fire and Emergency Planning and a dedicated Assembly committee to scrutinise it.

The CLG committee said the office of Mayor of London had been “a local government success story”. However, it said that the transfer of further powers to the Mayor through legislation enacted in 2007 and 2011 had not seen a matching enhancement of the powers of the Assembly. “Indeed, the changes have created inconsistencies.”

The MPs said their recommendations would enhance the Assembly’s credibility and visibility, without any detriment to the “popular and effective” mayoral model of London government.

Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Communities and Local Government Committee, said: “The Mayor must be held to account for the substantial powers invested in him. The London Assembly is the right vehicle to do this, but not in its current form.

“Changes over the years have built inconsistency into the powers and functions of the London Assembly. The result is a dog’s breakfast of responsibilities, with the Assembly lacking a clear role and understandable powers.”

Betts added: “The current arrangements are neither explicable to the general public nor can the London model be used in the rest of the country.”