Clause 16
Greater London Authority Bill
6:30 pm
Jim Fitzpatrick (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Poplar and Canning Town, Labour)
The clause provides for the deputy Mayor to exercise the Mayor’s budget-setting functions if the Mayor is temporarily unable to act. Under part 3 of schedule 4 to the 1999 Act, the deputy Mayor can already exercise many functions of the Mayor if he is temporarily unable to act. However, that does not extend to the Mayor’s budget-setting functions. Those functions are taken on by the assembly if the Mayor is temporarily unavailable.
The clause extends the role of the deputy Mayor to include the Mayor’s budget-setting functions under schedules 6 and 7 to the 1999 Act. It also provides that for the period during which the deputy Mayor exercises the Mayor’s budget-setting functions, she shall not carry out any of the functions of an assembly member in relation to setting the budget. Furthermore, the clause prevents the Mayor’s budget-setting responsibilities from transferring from the Mayor to the chair of the London assembly if there is no deputy Mayor.
The budget-setting process works by engaging both parts of the authority; the Mayor proposes the budget, which the assembly can amend by two-thirds majority, as we discussed extensively earlier today. The change will ensure that the assembly is not judge and jury in respect of its own budget if the Mayor is temporarily unable to act. In that event, the deputy Mayor will fulfil the budget-setting functions of the Mayor, proposing a budget that the assembly can amend by a two-thirds majority.