Greater London Authority Bill

moved Amendment No. 29: 29: Clause 13, page 13, line 12, at end insert— ““(5A) After paragraph 5A insert— ““Limit on Mayor’s powers to prepare draft budget for the Assembly 5B (1) In exercising his powers to prepare a draft component budget for the Assembly under paragraph 2 above, the Mayor must not prepare a draft component budget for the Assembly that is less than the minimum draft component budget requirement for the Assembly. (2) Find the minimum draft component budget requirement for the Assembly as follows. (3) If NM is greater than OM (as calculated underparagraph 5A(5) above) the minimum draft component budget requirement for the Assembly is as if NM equals OM. (4) If NM is less than OM (as calculated underparagraph 5A(5) above)— (a) find the percentage by which NM is less than OM, and (b) reduce the amount of the component budget requirement for the Assembly for the previous financial year by the same percentage. The result is the minimum draft component budget requirement for the Assembly. (5) If NM equals OM (as calculated under paragraph 5A(5) above) the minimum draft component budget requirement for the Assembly equals the amount of the component budget requirement for the Assembly for the previous year. (6) Sub-paragraphs (9) to (11) of paragraph 5A above shall have effect for the purposes of this paragraph.””.”” The noble Baroness said: I shall also speak to Amendments Nos. 30 to 35. The amendments deal with the Assembly's budget. I put on record my appreciation that the Government have acknowledged the need for particular arrangements for the Assembly. They did so some time ago. The Government said that the Assembly would be able to set its own budget. The Mayor also said that that was quite right and that no Mayor should be able to meddle with the Assembly's budget. I have acknowledged before now that the current Mayor has been generous in his allocation of staffing to the Assembly, but it is entirely possible that a future Mayor or the current Mayor in a less good mood—I do not want to personalise the issue—might constrain the Assembly's ability to scrutinise his actions and hold him to account. It is extremely important that the scrutiny arm should not be constrained through such a sledgehammer approach. The Government have included important protections for the Assembly's budget, but they are not enough. A separate component budget for the Assembly needs a little tweaking. The Minister spoke earlier about the ability to vote on separate components. I had not taken that into account in these amendments. I hope that we will be able to relate that point to the Assembly's budget as well as the overall issue. Amendment Nos. 29, 31 and 33 deal with the same issue but at different stages or under different circumstances. As the Minister said, the Bill sets a ceiling so that the Assembly budget cannot rise by a greater proportion than the Mayor's budget. For that purpose, the Mayor's budget is everything but the Assembly budget. I do not argue with that, but it does not address the issue of protection. The amendments would set a floor so that the Assembly budget is not subject to unlimited cuts if the new Mayor’s budget—that must be what ““NM”” means, and ““OM”” means old Mayor—is greater than the old Mayor’s budget—