Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, made the point that I have made throughout our discussions on the Bill when I have been accused of personalising points: he said that it is often good to consider how one might feel if political persuasions were different and there were different politicians in particular roles. I have a two-part question for the noble Lord, Lord Warner. Why is the amendment necessary, given that Section 10 of the 1985 Act gives the Secretary of State an order-making power? I apologise to noble Lords that this is inevitably slightly technical, but is it because Section 10 refers to councils and the Greater London Authority is not for this purpose a council? I do not know the answer to that. It may be that the section, even if the authority falls within it, does not go as far as the noble Lord would like in enabling the Secretary of State to put a new body under the aegis of the Mayor of London. But given that section, is the amendment necessary? My second question is more rhetorical. If the amendment is not necessary, the question answers itself, but if it is necessary, is it really appropriate for such a contentious matter—I echo the noble Baroness—to be dealt with by an order? We know that it is contentious—we have lived through all that—and we know that there would be almost nothing that the parties involved could do to change the order. I say ““almost nothing”” because I am well aware that we will be discussing an order about planning later, where the Government have moved considerably from their original position. I do not want to be so churlish as to suggest that this never happens. However, is the amendment necessary? If so, is this really the appropriate way of dealing with such a contentious matter?