Clause 22
Greater London Authority Bill
2:15 pm
Andrew Pelling (Croydon Central, Conservative)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship once again, Mr. O’Hara. I support the comments made by the hon. Members for Mitcham and Morden, for Battersea and for Carshalton and Wallington, because this Bill was an opportunity to go further in terms of the responsibility of London’s governance. That is not to deny the excellence of the clauses that we are discussing. I know that there is a variation in life expectancy of more than 10 years between one part of my borough of Croydon and another. That loss for the people whom we represent is an important consideration and should be an important consideration for London’s governance.
It is important for the Committee to know that Conservative Members would go further than the proposals suggested so far; we should have confidence in London’s governance, and NHS London should be run by the Mayor and the Greater London authority. There has been a tremendous amount of change in the strategic health authority organisation in London. It was a confusing process in terms of having a sub-regional structure. Given the move to NHS London, it would have made a great deal of sense for that power to have gone to London’s governance as part of the process.
I accept that the Government must have told the Mayor that there was no way that he was going to get his hands on NHS London, but there has been a great deal of talk about accountability. Even Members of Parliament have frustrations in understanding the opaqueness in the governance of our health services in London. One of the great benefits of the reintroduction of London’s governance is the ability to quiz the Mayor for two and a half hours every month. There could be an opportunity for London’s representatives to ask questions, through the London assembly, on important issues such as St. Helier hospital, which was raised by the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden, although the hospital is located in the constituency of the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington. Perhaps the democratic process represented by many thousands of people marching to save that hospital would have found its way of being communicated through London’s governance much more effectively had NHS London been within the London power structure.
It seems odd to propose so many responsibilities for the Mayor to drive forward the health inequalities strategy, but in previous clauses to provide for health advisers to address it through a separate process run by NHS London, which would denude the Mayor of the power to improve London’s health. I am sure that much of the local governance legislation that passed through this House over 120 years ago concerned public health. It was seen to be important then that city leaders involved themselves in that matter, and we too should have confidence in them.