Greater London Authority Bill

I am not nit-picking. The noble Baroness said that it was a probing amendment, but I homed in on that one because I am being asked a hypothetical question. Regarding the Mayor refusing to publish a skeletal strategy, we have every confidence in the current Mayor. He has been extremely successful as Mayor of London and there is no question about that. That is why no one can find anyone to put forward to beat him. The fact is that a future Mayor might do that and we must take account of that in policy. Where the Mayor has not published a strategy and the Secretary of State considers that he is not taking such steps as are necessary to prepare the strategy,he can issue a direction to the Mayor under subsection (2). We expect the Mayor to publish the timescale for the strategy as soon as reasonably practicable.