Greater London Authority Bill

I hope I can offer noble Lords some reassurance. The regional director for public health in London, in her current, informal capacity as health adviser to the GLA, provides the Mayor and the Assembly with expert advice on the patterns and causes of ill health in London and on proposals for action to improve health and narrow the health inequalities between Londoners. This dual role ensures that the Mayor and the Assembly can access expert advice from the person responsible for public health in London and provides a strong link between the GLA’s work on health and the work of the strategic health authority and Department of Health. The role of health adviser to the GLA was established in 2000, and is widely regarded as working well. However, the role is currently on an informal basis. We are making the role statutory simply to formalise the current arrangements and ensure that the successful co-ordination of work to improve the health of Londoners continues irrespective of changes in the political cycle or who is elected as Mayor or as an Assembly Member. Amendment No. 42 enables the Assembly to require the attendance of the health adviser and any deputy health advisers at Assembly meetings. We will resist this amendment. In her current, informal capacity, the health adviser meets regularly with the Mayor and the Assembly. She provides advice on public health issues and detailed briefing to Assembly scrutiny committees. She has also worked with the NHS in London to ensure that the most appropriate people are invited to give evidence to the Assembly. Clause 21 ensures that the health adviser advises the Greater London Authority—that is, the Mayor and the Assembly—which picks up the point that was being made. We find it inconceivable that, in her capacity as adviser to the Assembly, the health adviser would not wish voluntarily to continue to attend Assembly meetings when invited to do so. We therefore see no need to compel the health adviser to do so. My noble friend Lord Harris picked up the fact that the regional director of public health for London is a civil servant, accountable to the Department of Health and the strategic health authority. As such, she is accountable to Ministers and, through them, to Parliament. The Government have made it clear many times that it would be wrong to overturn the current constitutional arrangements by requiring civil servants to attend Assembly meetings. That said, given the health adviser’s unique role, we would expect her to continue to work closely with the Assembly and continue to attend Assembly meetings when appropriate. I therefore hope that the noble Baroness will withdraw the amendment.