Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, will not be surprised that we are not with her on this one. The issue of health inequalities is hugely important and fits well with the current mayoral powers. I am interested in what is perhaps an unintended consequence of her amendments; that by giving the Mayor a role in public health, it gives him more powers than if the matter were confined to health inequalities. We shall come to a government amendment, Amendment No. 40, which would add borough councils and the City to the list in new Section 309E(5) as relevant bodies. I am grateful, I think—I say that with a degree of caution, for a reason that I shall explain in a moment—to the Government for taking up a matter that I raised in Committee. I said then that the amendment was gently probing, because I felt that it was entirely right that the boroughs should be on the list of consultees for the purposes of the health inequalities strategy, but I was concerned that as another unintended consequence the Mayor might have increased powers and control over the boroughs. The new Section 309E(4)(d), which is to the bottom of page 22, says that the strategy must, "““describe the role to be performed by any relevant body””." This amendment would allow the Mayor to describe the boroughs’ role in health inequalities. I am concerned about the extension of mayoral powers in a way that might be too heavy-handed. I assume that the Government are unlikely to give such extensive powers, because that would mean that they had given the Mayor the same powers over primary care trusts, the Strategic Health Authority and NHS hospitals. They are unlikely to have given away to the Mayor quite that degree of power. When the Minister explains government Amendment No. 40, could she explain what the effect of that amendment would be, because I believe that it is broader than merely a consultative role?