Clause 12
Greater London Authority Bill
4:00 pm
Michael Gove (Shadow Minister (Housing), Communities and Local Government; Surrey Heath, Conservative)
We approve of this clause, but we have tabled some subsequent amendments that relate precisely to how the assembly’s part of the budget might be calculated. I shall try not to stray into that territory now. I shall simply say that we want our amendments to underpin the reassurance of which the Under-Secretary spoke. We believe that it is absolutely right for the purpose of transparency and in the interests of Londoners that it is perfectly clear what the Mayor is spending on his executive function and what the assembly is spending to discharge its scrutiny role. For that reason, we welcome both the terms and the intentions of clause 12, but we fear that some of the later aspects of the Bill do not live up to the good intentions that it outlines.