New Clause 2
Greater London Authority Bill
4:00 pm
Michael Gove (Shadow Minister (Housing), Communities and Local Government; Surrey Heath, Conservative)
I may be at risk of testing both your patience, Lady Winterton, which I know is almost infinite, and that of the Committee by pointing out that I am about to echo the hon. Gentleman’s echo of his previous comments. Essentially the debate on consultation has been at its most acute when it comes to the Mayor’s exercise of powers over the congestion charge and, in particular, its westward extension. New clause 34 would provide an alternative, not competing but complementary method of defining the Mayor’s consultation powers alongside new clause 2. We have sought to lay out a way in which the Mayor can choose and it is at the Mayor’s discretion how he defines the manner in which he will consult Londoners and appropriate bodies.
One of the reason for tabling the new clause and hoping that the Minister might accept it today is that rather than the Mayor having to develop an ad hoc series of consultations at different points, we have provided him with a means of laying down the method by which he will conduct all the consultations that will govern his policy. It is an important principle that those who exercise executive power in the United Kingdom prefer, wherever possible, to be bound by the rule of law. I mentioned earlier that one of the things that we seek to do is to ensure that when the Mayor does exercise his powers, he does so in such a way that all those who are affected by them have as much confidence as possible that he is exercising them appropriately.