Greater London Authority Bill

moved Amendment No. 42: 42: Clause 21, page 19, line 20, at end insert— ““( ) In section 61 of the GLA Act 1999 (power to require attendance at Assembly meetings), after subsection (2)(a) insert— ““(aa) the Health Adviser and any Deputy Health Adviser,””.”” The noble Baroness said: I hope that this might prove to be a gentle forerunner to our debates onPart 4. Earlier, we sought to insert a provision whereby the Assembly could call before it both the health adviser and any deputy health adviser. This amendment advances that proposal. The Assembly can already summon staff, members of functional bodies and even the Mayor to appear before it. We seek to add the health adviser and his deputies to that list. The health adviser’s function is to advise Assembly members on matters of public health, yet the Bill does not require him to attend the Assembly in any formal manner. At Second Reading, we welcomed the initiative that the health adviser would be subject to summons in public and we wish to know why it is not intended that the Assembly should have the power to summon those advisers to its meetings. Given the wide-ranging remit proposed in Part 4, it seems entirely appropriate that the Assembly should have such powers. I beg to move.